Three There Are
by Thrippa
Summary: Knuckles receives warning that the three tribes of stones and their respective King stones must be restored to their proper places.
1. Three There Are

**A.N. -** Welcome! Ths main story of this fanfic and any characters not well-known to Sonic fans are my own creation. Any recognizable characters, including (but not limited to): Knuckles, Tikal, Tails, Rouge, the Babylon Rogues and Big the cat; and all story elements borrowed from Sonic the Hedgehog games are the property of SEGA.

References and possible spoilers for the following games: Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Sonic Adventure/SADX, Sonic Battle, Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. (The last one's not my fault. I had the plot roughed out and SEGA comes along and drops previews that match or interlock with some of my points. Then they release the game and it fits even better. But if you haven't played ZG yet, you have until Chapter 7 to do so.) This story also follows after my previous set of stories, but probably the only thing you need to know from them is that 'dokan' is the word I made up for 'anthropomorph'/'furry' because it's easier to type and less confining. (The Rogues, for instance, can hardly be called 'furries')

**Three There Are**

It was a gorgeous day. The sun beamed down over the ancient stones of the shrine, while a soft breeze prevented the heat from becoming too oppressive. The breeze smelled strongly of salt, which meant that the island was floating not too far above the ocean waves. Yes, floating; Angel Island was nearly unique in that it floated in the air, traveling from place to place, rather than rising solidly from the sea floor. The enormous green gem that helped maintain its flight glittered alluringly from its altar on top of the stone shrine, which floated on its own little island, moored to the main isle by a rope-and-wood bridge. Across on the 'mainland', a handful of the little chao were playing in the rocky field. Most were playing 'king of the mountain', clambering up one of the rocky outcrops to try and topple each other off it. One green chao appeared to be hunting grasshoppers. They seemed, as always, utterly content with the world, both in general and in their own spheres. The land grew rockier as the meadow sloped upwards and merged with the base of the volcano that occupied the central portion of the range. Though lava still churned in the heart of it, the volcano had stood dormant for millennia, and the top was capped with snow and ice. Today, with the island hovering near sea level, the icepack was melting; narrow streams pouring over the mountain's ridges in long, sparkling waterfalls. They merged at the intermittent channel that meandered across the rocky meadow and ultimately poured down through gap between the two islands and into the sea below. It didn't matter; when the island rose again to the chillier reaches of the sky, new precipitation and condensation would freeze again on the volcano's peak.

Although the setting may have been idyllic, the guardian of the shrine felt anything but. Knuckles the Echidna grumbled to himself as he stood up, looking away from the playful chao. He stepped up onto the platform that held the Master Emerald and its altar and paced off the few steps it took to circle it entirely. Nothing to see but the balance of Angel Island on one side and the empty, calm ocean on the other. He paused a moment, then descended the steps to walk the much larger circle around the base of the shrine. A pale blue chao emerged from a clump of bushes against a half-fallen wall and fell into step with him. It looked up at him and gave him a toothy grin as he reached the steps again, then skipped off towards the bridge to rejoin its fellows. Knuckles climbed back up the steps and settled himself again on the next-to-the-top one, using the last riser as a backrest. Scowling at the lovely scenery, he finally acknowledged the problem that had plagued him for the last few weeks. He was bored.


	2. A Day in the Life

1. A Day in the Life . . .

Boredom hadn't originally been a problem for Knuckles, and he wasn't certain what to do about it. Growing up on the island, he'd been raised among - and largely by - the chao, and had absorbed their simple approach to life. Like them, when he'd been hungry he'd looked for food; when he'd been tired he'd slept. Unlike them, he'd also patrolled the shrine and the island, maintaining a watch over the Master Emerald and the six Chaos Emeralds that had stood in a ring around it. This he had learned from another source.

_As far back as he could remember, he'd been fascinated by the glowing, shiny green rock at the top of the shrine. Most nights he slept near the altar, at the peak of the shrine; only when the weather was bad did he seek shelter in a niche at the base of the ancient structure. It was when he'd slept beneath the stars, bathed in the Master Emerald's green glow, that he had learned his role in the world and what it required of him._

_They came in his dreams, strange creatures that looked not like the chao he saw daily, but like the reflection he himself cast in still water or the Master Emerald's facets. Taller and much bulkier than chao, well muscled, with padded gloves and spiked knuckles, their faces and dreads marked with white paint. They told him that he and they were echidnas, and taught him things that the chao could not: how to talk, how to read the ancient hieroglyphs, martial arts beyond the clumsy wrestling of the chao. From the dreams also came the knowledge that he was the guardian of the island, that the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds must never fall into the wrong hands again, or disaster would occur. _

_The young Knuckles had never been quite sure what 'disaster' was, only that it was a bad thing. Even in the dreams, he could never find out why he was all alone, or what had happened the first time wrong hands had found the Emeralds; if he pressed the ghosts of the past too hard, he awakened and would dream no more on those nights. As he grew older, the dreams had waned, and he was left to practice alone and search the stones of Angel Island for answers._

With an irritated growl, he rose from his seat on the steps and descended again, shaking his head as if to shoo away the memories. This time he didn't stop at the perimeter of the shrine's tumbled stones but continued down the slope, stepping on or over ancient, near-buried paving stones. He stopped at the brink of the shrine's little islet, between a pair of ancient wooden posts that marked where an ancient causeway had approached the shrine. The other end of the stone causeway lay in an area called Mystic Ruins, down on the ground miles away, hidden by encroaching jungle as it ran between a cliff and an ancient pyramid.

Knuckles peered down over the islet's edge at the sea. As he'd thought, they were only a few dozen feet above the undulating waves - which meant that the lower reaches of Angel Island proper would be submerged at this point. A few fins flashed through the water - dolphins pursuing the fish that were gathering in the island's shadow. A single slim, grey shape leaped from the water, spinning on its tail to crash backwards into the ocean again. Knuckles grunted sourly at the sight and followed the edge of the islet until he reached the bridge that docked it to the main body of Angel Island. He trudged across the wood planks, noting one that needed replacing before it rotted through. That would give him something to do, at least. Once across the bridge he headed straight onward into the maze of red-walled canyons that wrapped around the foot of the volcano.

There was no easy way through the canyons at the best of times, and at the moment, meltwater was flooding through the gorges. This was no hindrance to the echidna, who simply made alternating use of his gliding ability and his knuckle spikes to cross flood waters and climb cliffs. The spikes, of course, were the namesake of his tribe, and of himself; the gliding . . . he had filed under 'don't ask too many questions'. He didn't know how he did it, Tails had assured him he shouldn't be able to . . . but he'd been doing it for years and saw no reason to stop now, just because it was 'impossible'. Besides, a two-tailed fox who could fly like a helicopter had no business telling Knuckles that _he _couldn't glide. Soon enough the echidna was clambering over the lip of the last cliff, and looking down into the mushroom forest.

The forest was exactly what its name implied, a region of fungi gone wild and grown to giant sizes - although not to anything like the degree he'd seen during the Metal Sonic business. These were typically two to three times his height, and sturdy enough to walk on; he periodically harvested one of the spongy caps for a mattress. On one side it stretched to the marble ruins of the echidna civilization that had predated their Empire, on the other, it died out at the edges of a desert holding pyramids that had been ancient before the echidnas had come to power. Knuckles had wondered occasionally if that was why the echidnas had later built their own pyramids, to show that their Empire had as much wealth and skill as the more ancient race. But his destination today was straight ahead, through the mushrooms to the true forest on the far side. Much had been destroyed when the 'dragon' had landed; but more than enough remained to supply the wood he needed.

_When the dragon had landed. He remembered __**that**__ all too well. He'd been patrolling as usual, guarding the Master Emerald and the six Chaos Emeralds that ringed it - there had been seven pillars then, circling the shrine, but only six had borne the glowing stones at their tips - when suddenly the Emeralds had ALL reacted, flaring with a blinding flash of polychrome light. The earthquake that accompanied this had sent him tumbling from the peak of the shrine, (presumably) shattered the Chaos Emeralds and their pillars, and knocked him out when his head collided with a rock. Once he'd awakened, he'd found the Chaos Emeralds gone but for a few multicolored fragments, their light gone out, but the Master Emerald still in its place. In the distance he could see a shiny something with a column of dark smoke rising from it. He'd discovered later that the island had crashed completely into the sea from either the shock of impact or the weight. He'd immediately linked the disaster to an old prophecy that spoke of a metal dragon that would bring the island down and steal the Emeralds for its master's purpose of wreaking havoc on the world, to be defeated only by a glowing golden god; therefore he had carried the Master Emerald to a safe haven. The hidden room in the underground palace had been used once before, that he knew of; when the seventh Chaos Emerald had been stolen, the Master Emerald had been secreted there for a time, until it was certain that the thief would not return._

_Returning from the palace - intent on scouting the dragon and recovering his missing Chaos Emeralds - he had encountered the first human he'd ever seen. Twice his own height and shaped like a chao egg on legs, the man had professed to be in pursuit of a pair of thieves seeking to take the Emeralds - all of them - for their own. This team of blue hedgehog_ _and two-tailed fox was even now approaching the island to pick over the results of the disaster they'd caused. _

_Knuckles had been skeptical at first, but when he arrived at the beach - now at sea-level - he could feel the unmistakable power of the Chaos Emeralds emanating from the intruder. Pulling on his own link with the Master Emerald, he neutralized the Chaos Emerald's protective shield long enough to deprive the intruder of them, and send them into hiding themselves. (It was one of the unexplained mysteries that the Chaos Emeralds could hide themselves in pocket dimensions while the Master Emerald could not.) Of course, later he'd learned that it was the human, Dr. Eggman, that was after the Master Emerald, and Sonic and Tails were there to stop __**him**__. But that was only after Eggman had burned a significant part of Angel Island's forest down, between the fires started by the Death Egg's crash and the ones he'd set deliberately to try to kill Sonic. _

Knuckles launched himself towards the nearest mushroom cap, rather than trudging down the slope. He lost a little of his gloom as he bounced his way from cap to cap, using each as a trampoline to propel him to the next. He varied the routine occasionally by sliding on the vines that were also oversized in this region, as large around as his waist. Reaching the true forest at last, he began studying the trees. He actually found what he was looking for in the burned area; the faster-growing saplings had reached a height and thickness suitable for a bridge log. The wood might not last as long, but should endure long enough for some of the young, slower-growing hardwoods to grow big enough to make a more permanent replacement. Knuckle pursed his lips and whistled a complicated call. A few minutes later, a tiny beaver waddled into the clearing. He indicated the tree he wanted and it promptly began gnawing through the trunk. As much as it might surprise some of his friends, he preferred not to go around bashing up his island - his dream-guides had stressed and re-stressed that it was the echidna's defiance of nature that had caused their collapse. What he'd learned when Chaos was let loose had made him question the old teachings some, but he still saw no reason to smash up his own home. The beaver could cut the tree down faster than he could, and while he might rip it up by the roots even faster than that, the beaver-trimmed stump would resprout, and wouldn't risk damaging the roots of nearby trees. Since a lot of the fruit he ate came from these woods, it was in his own best interest to maintain them.

Speaking of food. . . . He spotted a tree with ripe apples not too far away and picked several, returning as the sapling crashed down to offer one to the beaver. It took it gladly and scampered off. Munching another apple, he shouldered one end of the sapling and started his return to the bridge.

He'd co-opted one of Eggman's leftover guard shacks near the mouth of the red canyons to replace a tool shed that had been destroyed when Angel Island had crashed. Dropping the sapling out front, he ducked inside long enough to gather an axe, a plane, a wedge and a saw. Quickly he trimmed off the branches and cut the trunk to the right length. Then he split the resultant log in two and began the tedious process of planing the inner face smooth. He didn't bother cutting the tree into actual boards, he'd just use the half-log in the bridge as it was once the worst of the rough places were corrected. Once he'd tied it into place, he put the other half in the shack to dry. Eyeing the setting sun, he moved across the rock-strewn ground to a cave where the little plain met the foot of the volcano. This was the closest thing he had to a home, and had been since he'd outgrown the niche in the base of the shrine. Although he still kept a mattress and blanket in the niche, and usually slept there on the rare nights he didn't sleep up with the Master Emerald, the rest of his possessions were kept here. One relatively recent addition was a little refrigerator that Tails had rigged, powered by solar panels up on the cliff face. It had made a big difference in Knuckles' ability to store food. Gathering ingredients, he lit a small cookfire and prepared dinner, then returned to the shrine.

He walked the edge of the islet again while there was still light. After the sun set, he settled himself back up on the top level of the shrine, with the great Emerald at his back, and watched the stars for a while. Eventually, he lay down in a hollow in one of the ancient stones, and fell asleep.


	3. Dreams of the Past

2. Dreams of the Past

The buildings were multistoried, built of square-cut stone, many plastered and painted. Square windows, with wooden shutters but no glass, looked down on the stone paved streets and the echidnas that swarmed along them. Females moved quickly, attending to the business of daily life, while males paced toward guard posts or training grounds, brusquely shouldering the smaller females aside. Girls scurried along assisting their mothers while boys ran and shouted, waving small spears and colliding with the hurrying females - but keeping well clear of the full-grown males. Knuckles strode rapidly down streets he knew but had never seen before, following a route he knew by heart, though he had never traveled it. Soon he arrived at the massive temple complex, which was patrolled only by the bulky warriors. These buildings were also of massive stone blocks, bluntly carved and painted in red and cream. He passed through the complex and out the other side, down the short slope to a bridge and an archaic shrine. He stopped at the end of the bridge, looking at a shrine both familiar and not; that he had guarded every moment of his remembered life, and that he had never seen before. Surrounded by a circular colonnade, the shrine rose out of a pool of water. A domed roof shielded the altar at the top, and seven pillars rose from the pool around it, each topped by a brilliantly glowing gem. Even here and now, the shrine looked ancient, the stones rounded as if by time (though he knew it was no older than the temple complex behind him) and smoothed by water. For the shrine had been built over an artesian spring; the altar and the level below it encircled - broken only by the line of steps - by water that cascaded smoothly over the edge to the levels below. The pool at the base of the shrine gave rise to a spring that gurgled and splashed away from it. The splashing part was being aided by a quartet of chao - one large running type supervising a trio of infants who were pretending to swim or drown in the shallow water.

"Are you there?"

Knuckles jumped and turned to see a young echidna girl coming up the path. It wasn't until he tried to answer Tikal that he realized that he wasn't really there. He could make no sound, and she passed within inches with no sign of seeing him. She gave the paddling chao a fond glance, then looked at the rings of water encircling the shrine.

Again, she asked, "Are you there?"

This time Knuckles saw the ripples shiver across the previously still water. After a moment, a wave rose up on the shrine's lower level, and moved across to the edge. As the water lapped over the top of the encircling wall, it condensed in an odd manner, and what actually landed in the pool below was a bipedal form that Knuckles knew all too well. The bulbous, ovoid eyes regarded the slim girl in front of it.

"Chaos," said Tikal, sounding relieved. "My father has decided that he does not need the Emeralds to defeat the Lion tribe. I wish–" Her voice broke off. Knuckles remembered that she was a pacifist, or at least a peacemaker - very unusual for her time and race, not to mention her family. Her father was one of the most war-mad chieftains the Knuckles tribe had ever known, and he'd had the warriors to back up his own strength. With them he'd forged an empire that no other dokan nation had been able to face. With a sorrowful sigh she finished, "I wish I could convince him that there is no need to fight. We have all the land we need, and I fear that he will either push our neighbors too far, or anger the gods with his greed. And then what will become of all of us?"

She sat down on the lower steps of the shrine. Two of the infant chao left off their water sports and stumbled across to climb into her lap. The watery Chaos merely watched, making no move or sound. The echidna maiden bent her head over the two chao on her lap, tickling one lightly with her fingers. "Three there are who aid in crisis," she said softly; quoting something, Knuckles thought. "Of fire, air, and water born. Heed their warnings and guard their children, lest you meet your darkest morn."

She looked at Chaos, standing stolidly beside her. "These are your children, are they not?" The water being gave a barely perceptible nod. She looked down again. "Of water born . . . And air, and fire?" She looked questioningly at her transparent blue companion. Chaos looked back impassively, then stepped back, into the stream, and melted into it. The girl frowned after the creature, then gently put the two chao back on the ground. Standing up again, she climbed the steps to the altar and began to go through the ancient ritual of thanks to the gods that had gifted the seven power stones and the King stone to the echidnas. Abruptly something splashed on Knuckles' face.

Knuckles blinked and found him staring at the clouds, lying on top of the Emerald shrine which had long since lost its roof. Another drop of rain hit him on the nose, and he realized that several others were soaking through his fur. He scrambled up and glided quickly down to the ground to seek shelter in the niche at the base of the shrine. Drying himself off with a towel he kept there, he thought about the dream. _It's not like the old ones_, he decided. _Those, the echidnas came and talked __**to**__ me. This time, I was watching what happened. Hmm, I wonder if it really did happen? Or maybe I was making it up based on that whole mess in Station Square._ He frowned._ I wish I could ask Tikal. _Unfortunately, he hadn't seen her but about twice since that 'whole mess' and both times _she_ had initiated contact. Since she'd given up her body to trap Chaos in the Master Emerald - the King power stone, the ancients had called it - she appeared merely as a floating ball of light most of the time, and was rarely seen even in that form. He looked out into the now-pouring rain as lightning flashed through the clouds._ I suppose I could ask the Master Emerald where she is. Or if I can find Chaos, I could ask __**it**_He frowned thoughtfully. _What did she say? Something about three . . . beings? gods? Chaoses? Three somethings, anyway, and Chaos is the water one, but there are also air and fire. _

Chaos was a variant chao, chao being the little creatures that his ancestors had thought were nature spirits, as they had thought Chaos a god. The chao were unusual in their highly mutable body structure - they could adopt both physical and functional aspects of the small animals on Angel Island. They also could draw energy from the Chaos drives that had been invented by Professor Gerald - who had invented a lot of things, including Shadow the Hedgehog, before he'd gone mad and rigged the space station ARK to destroy the planet. Knuckles had known about the chao all his life - they had raised him, after all - but Chaos had been only an ancient legend, a warning against excessive pride and aggression, until the 'mess in Station Square'.

_The 'mess' as he always thought of it, had happened before Knuckles had met Shadow, or even heard about the ARK. He'd been guarding the Emerald shrine as usual when several explosions had drawn him warily to the foot of the stairs to investigate; there was a loud CRACK! above and behind him and when he turned to look the Master Emerald had exploded and this strange, watery, blue being was looking down from the top of the shrine at him, surrounded by a halo of green shards. "Who are you?" he demanded in outrage, "Did you do that to the Master Emerald?" As he raced back up the steps the thing had liquified and trickled down between the stones of the shrine. At the same time, Angel Island had dropped precipitously into the ocean and the Emerald shards had scattered widely. Tikal, who had trapped her own soul in the Emerald when she trapped Chaos, had also been released, though Knuckles only learned that later; in an effort to help she had sent not only to him, but to his friends as well, visions of the time that her father Pachacamac had enraged Chaos by slaughtering the chao. _

Perhaps that had triggered his dream? _Hmm. But there were things in the dream that were not part of what she showed me then._ Just his brain filling in gaps? Or an actual message from the Master Emerald? Knuckles sighed. He'd have to try to communicate with the stone in the morning. Right now - he winced as a massive lightning strike lit up his little niche - right now was **not** a good time to stand atop the shrine. As the thunder shook the very stones around him, he located the blanket he kept here to ward off the inevitable chill of these stormy nights, and curled up on the mattress to sleep.

The morning sun woke him, beaming cheerfully into his shelter to shine on his face. The red echidna levered himself up off his mattress and stretched, looking out the open entrance where the grass glittered with dew and residual rain. An ambitious spider had strung a web across the entrance while he slept, and it too sparkled like diamonds. Knuckles folded his blanket and returned it to the foot of the mattress, then picked up his shoes in one hand and gathered the damp towel and yesterday's socks in the other. Ducking carefully under the web, he stepped out and waded through the wet grass to the foot of the steps. Leaving his socks and shoes on the bottom step, he spread the towel along the flat railing to dry in the sun and marched up to the altar.

As usual, the Master Emerald and its altar were completely dry, despite the puddles in the timeworn stones on the floor around it. Having verified its presence, Knuckles gave the surrounding area a cursory glance and began his morning routine of stretches and exercises. As these became more advanced, the Emerald's glow seemed to brighten a bit, and he could almost see a shadowy opponent in front of him - and definitely feel blows that landed or were blocked. Shadow-boxing for real, he thought, which reminded him of Shadow the Hedgehog, and suddenly the vague 'opponent' became an ethereal vision of the black and red Ultimate Life-form. Simultaneously, the feel of blows landing increased, and the doppelganger began to counter with moves the real Shadow might have made, rather than the basic block-and-dodge moves of the initial 'opponent'. Now Knuckles had to counter his rival's moves, or block them, as well as making his own strikes; a missed block resulted in a strike painful enough to leave bruises, although they never did. The pair circled around the altar several times before Knuckles called a mental halt, and the foe vanished as suddenly as it had come. The echidna ran through the cool-down stretches, sweating in the humidity left by the rains. When he finished, he looked thoughtfully at the massive green gem. Finally he said aloud, "I need to talk to Tikal if she's around . . . or, maybe one of the dream-guides."

Did a facet flash brighter? Or was it merely the reflection of the sun shifting as it rose? After a couple of minutes with nothing happening, the echidna retreated back down the stairs. The towel was as damp as it had been when he'd spread it in the sun, so he left it there when he gathered his shoes and socks and headed for the bridge. He never had figured out how sentient the Master Emerald was or wasn't. It could show him things, as it had displayed the Egg Carrier in its facets when he'd been stumped over the whereabouts of the last missing shards, after Chaos had broken free. And it had certain powers, like sending dreams and creating the shadow opponents (which weren't always _Shadow_ opponents; he'd sparred with faux Sonics and Rouges, and even Charmy once, though he'd taken care never to think about that dratted bee in the gem's vicinity again). But whether it could understand his needing to talk to Tikal, or summon her even if it did comprehend his need . . . He just didn't know. He grunted in irritation as he strode into his cave.

"Another pair of socks, soap, towel," he muttered as he gathered items. He tossed the previous day's socks onto a heap of similar discards. "Dirty clothes? No, not yet," he decided; he'd wash the pile another day. He considered his gloves a moment, then pulled them off and tossed them onto the heap as well, pulling a fresh pair from a trunk. A comb? He pinched his arm a few times, and regarded the few red hairs that rubbed off. _Nope, not shedding yet._ One problem with the island's peregrinations was that his internal clock often got out of whack, causing him to shed at irregular intervals. Satisfied with his preparations he continued deeper into the cave, and passed through a door into a cavern of icy-looking quartz, where a crystal clear pool of water blocked the path. Beyond the pool, a ladder disappeared upwards into darkness. Although the ladder led up to the icecap on the mountain's peak, and the water itself was snowmelt, he dived in without hesitation. Sighing with pleasure, he swam around the small pool twice before returning to the edge to retrieve the soap. What the uninitiated might not realize was that though the water had come from the icy regions above, the pool itself was heated by the lava that still magically churned below, in the heart of the island, so it was pleasantly warm.

The echidna soaped and scrubbed then swam around a bit more to rinse off, idly watching the soapy bubbles drift to a point on the pool's edge and vanish. Almost directly opposite, he knew, was a similar spot where the water flowed in at a slightly cooler temperature than the pool in general. The circulation seemed to only occur when a person was actually in the pool; he'd tested it when he was younger, dropping leaves and bark that simply floated on the surface until he got in with them, only then drifting over to vanish. Today though, he simply hauled himself out and dried off, pulling on the clean socks and gloves, and then his shoes. Leaving the soap in his cave, he took the towel as he returned to the shrine, and spread it on the opposite side of the stairs from the first. Then he went up to sit on the top stair again.

No chao were visible today, although the grass was nearly dry by now. No sign of Tikal either, he noted, either in her echidna form or her will o' wisp one. But there was something. He sat staring glumly at the white stone for several minutes before it really registered. Totally out of place among the rough-hewn grey stones of the shrine, a polished white chip gleamed in the sun. Knuckles picked it up, looking around suspiciously for a sign of who had left it. Seeing nothing else out of place, he looked down at the stone. He turned it in his hand, noting the slight fluting along one edge and a shape carved into one side. "Marble Gardens," he said aloud. "This is a chip from the buildings there." He looked up in surprise as the Master Emerald flashed, unmistakably this time. "I'm to go there?" he asked the green stone. But again it was silent.


	4. The Marble Halls

3. The Marble Halls

Knuckles left the silent gem atop its altar and descended the steps again. Holding the chip of marble like a talisman, he crossed the bridge and returned to the canyons. Marble Gardens was the name Tails had given to the oldest echidna ruins, which were marked by beautiful, graceful columns and arches, intricately carved. Once the Empire began extending its reach, that style of architecture had been abandoned in favor of massive, blocky constructions of granite, designs and materials chosen to show the power and invulnerability of the echidna tribes, as blunt and unsubtle as their builders. He could get there the way he had gone yesterday, crossing the canyons then traveling through the mushroom forest to its deasil edge. (North and south meant little on a traveling island; often the sun rose _and_ set off the far side of the shrine's islet. Therefore he told direction by deasil and widdershins around the central mountains) Instead he decided to take a different route, through the underground city. He hadn't been there for a while, and since the island had trailed its base through the ocean yesterday, he should probably check for damages. Besides, there were always the traps to maintain. He looked down as he crossed the bridge to the main island and confirmed that they were well above the ocean today.

Although ground level tended to remain at a fairly stable temperature, moving in parallel with the seasons at Mystic Ruins, the higher up the central mountains you went, the more the temperature relied on the island's height. The island was high enough today that the snowcaps were no longer melting, and the red canyons were now quite dry. The guardian glided and climbed as before, only this time he trended downwards, towards a cave mouth that would have been well underwater the day before. Once inside, a short tunnel descended into a vast underground city that stretched beneath both the mushroom and normal forests. The echidnas had lived here both before and during the Marble Gardens years, but although they had carved their own marks into the stones they were not the original builders. Knuckles had never been able to figure out who the original builders had been, only that they were neither echidnas nor the vanished people who had built the desert pyramids. The interior tunnel mouth opened onto a platform that was usually above the water level, although today he paused on the wall long enough to remove his shoes and socks before dropping into ankle-deep water. There were delicate towers down there under the water, whether purely for decoration or having served some practical purpose now forgotten, and a variety of traps. And a number of Dr. Eggman's robots, for all that Knuckles had repeatedly tried to hunt them down. They and some of the traps had been left behind when he and Sonic had run Eggman off the island. The problem was that these were the old type of Eggman robot, powered by the small creatures that lived on the island, so Knuckles felt duty-bound to smash as many as possible in order to free the tiny prisoners. A brief scan of the rippling waves revealed no robots though, so he set his sights on the closest building wall and glided across. Digging his namesake spikes into the wall, he quickly climbed to the roof and pause to don his footgear again. The roof stones had never been smoothed, although the interior and visible exterior surfaces all were. Jogging cautiously across the irregular surface, he maintained his direction through his link to the Master Emerald; by judging his angle and distance from it, he could tell exactly where he was anywhere on or under the island. He stopped once to swat down a pair of shark-planes, cracking them open to release a bat and a tiny white seal. The bat he released at once, the seal he carried down far enough to release it into the water; the white ones appeared to live exclusively in Hydrocity. (Another name by Tails, who had been quite dismayed by Knuckles' tendency to call it the underwater city, underground city, or the cave city as the mood struck him. "But what's its _real_ name?" cried the distressed fox cub. "How do you know where you're talking about if it doesn't have a name?") As the pale shape disappeared into the dark waters, Knuckles climbed back upwards. When he came level with a window on the building opposite, he glided across and through. The floor here was soaked, and scattered with random clumps of weed left by the waters as they receded. Another couple of robots made a sally and had their captives released, and the echidna located a newly weak spot in the floor and piled the lakeweed to mark it. Later he'd come back and either repair it, break it on through, or further weaken it in such a manner to turn it into a trap. For now, he continued on through the city, until he came to the far end of the cave. Then he climbed up the wall and out another short tunnel, pushing through the bushes that screened the other end to enter the Marble Gardens.

Marble Gardens was a small area of rolling green hills that spread from the mushroom forest around to the foot of the mountains. It was liberally dotted with the pillared temples and dwellings of the Ancient Echidnas, who predated the Echidna Empire. As the name suggested, most of the remaining structures were built of white marble, like the chip that he'd found on top of the shrine. It was also the area of Angel Island where one was most likely to see a white chao.

White chao weren't entirely white, but they were either very rare or exceptionally adept at hiding. Knuckles had only seen them a few times in his life, but he knew they were real because Shadow had seen one as well. Shadow was the least likely person Knuckles knew to make up things, and the echidna had never mentioned the white chao to anyone until Shadow asked about the one he'd seen. The usual chao was pale blue at hatching, and either remained that way or shifted color if they preferred a certain type of animal playmate. For instance, chao that liked playing with cheetahs became the green or blue running types, while those that imitated the birds took on the purple hue of the flight type. There were also rare chao that were born another color, but they took on only the shape of the types, not the color. The whites Knuckles had seen had had touches of other colors and unique shapes, different both from the types he knew, and from each other. So he kept his eyes open for signs of them as he prowled among the ruins.

He'd stopped in a long-abandoned garden to pick oranges from an ancient tree (not so old as the ruins, of course, probably a great-great grand seed of the original, at least), when he saw the first sign of chao. A little spring meandered through the garden, which was probably why the trees were still thriving. At a change in the spring's gurgles, Knuckles looked up to see part of the water surge up and shape itself into Chaos. The transparent blue creature stepped out of the stream and came to join him.

"Hello, Chaos," said the echidna cautiously. He was never as comfortable around the strange being as Tikal had been; he remembered all too well what it had been like when it ran amuck. "Would you like an orange?"

Chaos regarded the proffered fruit solemnly, then reached out a tri-fingered hand and took it. It did not eat it, however, but appeared to be waiting for something. Actually, Knuckles reflected, it didn't appear to have a mouth in this form, so it might not be able to eat. Still, the offering of fruit had been accepted, so maybe it could. Knuckles slit the skin on the other oranges he'd picked and peeled them, savoring the juicy sections one after another.

When he'd finished, he rinsed his hands and mouth in the little brook, and with one more glance at Chaos, made to leave the garden. And now at last the creature moved. With a beckoning gesture of its free hand, it indicated Knuckles should follow.

Doubtful, Knuckles held his ground. "Why should I go that way? I'm looking for Tikal, or information on an old rhyme of hers."

The creature had no expression to change but it shook its head slightly. Holding up its free hand again, Chaos spread the fingers and dipped each one towards Knuckles; one, two, three. The echidna frowned. Crouching, the creature traced a line in the dirt with one finger, leaving a narrow line of mud. Then it flicked a glance at the guardian, then it drew a second line, connected to the first at an acute angle. Another glance and a third line, forming a triangle. It looked at Knuckles again.

Knuckles knelt down next to the creature rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Okay, it's a triangle. Three sides." He didn't see the point, although Tikal's little verse had been about three.

Chaos retraced one of the lines, then drew two more, making two triangles that shared a side. It repeated this a few times, each time retracing a side line, so that it ended up with a line of triangles that alternately pointed up and down. Then, it changed tack, and traced the base of the last triangle and drew a much longer line down and back towards the center of the triangles. The third line connected to the other side of the base, resulting in a much taller triangle pointing back under the line. When Chaos traced the base of the next upwards-pointed triangle, and the side of the long one, Knuckles suddenly realized what it was drawing. "The Master Emerald! Or, a Chaos Emerald?" The creature looked at him again and wiggled its three fingers at him. "Three Chaos Emeralds?" There was only one Master Emerald, there couldn't possibly be three.

Chaos shook its head again. It looked at the drawing it had made a moment then looked around, finally pulling three forked twigs from a nearby bush. Glancing back and forth between Knuckles and what it was doing, it stood a twig on end and let go. The twig fell over. Chaos repeated this twice, then waggled a finger at the perplexed echidna. Next used two twigs, again on end, but tilted so the forks meshed. They fell over as well, and Chaos waggled two fingers. Then it used all three twigs, leaning the forked ends against each other so that they stayed upright. It waggled three fingers, then made a fist and thumped the ground.

Knuckles was frowning, his brow furrowed in concentration. "Three," he said, half to himself. "Three . . . for stability?" he looked up at the creature beside him. Chaos nodded, then stood and moved away a few steps, again beckoning him to follow. This time Knuckles did.

Chaos took a meandering path, passing through several chao gardens (not white chao, but a variety of the usual types and colors). Unlike the orange trees that had basically fended for themselves, these had trees planted specifically by and tended by the chao. Knuckles noted chao fruit (shaped like a chao head), square fruit, and triangle fruit trees, all being weeded or watered by adult chao with occasional toddlers looking on. The toddlers gave him pause a moment, and he tried to recall when he'd last seen an infant chao, other than in his dream. _Fall must be coming on_, he decided. _No more infants until spring. _The sight of one tree with distinctively-shaped scarlet fruit caught his eye and gave rise to a new question as he followed Chaos out of the garden and into one of the pillared temples. _I wonder what become of the fall and winter eggs resulting from heart fruit? I know every time a couple of chao share one they produce an egg, but I never see any infants past midsummer. And I know at least a few of the heart fruits come ripe in the fall and winter, even if most do fruit in spring and summer._

He forgot the thought as his guide stopped and indicated one of the temple idols with a three fingered hand. Keeping well back - some of the idols were traps and would fire arrows at passersby - Knuckles looked at the sculpture. It looked like all the rest, merely a bas relief face with a sort of headdress above and pediment below; a human face except– He gasped as he realized what Chaos was indicating. It was a human face, except for the _three eyes_. The third eye in the center of the forehead was often a trigger or switch, and he'd never really thought much about them before. He looked at Chaos. "Three?" he asked. The water being nodded and continued to a drop shaft in the middle of the temple. Chaos dissolved into a puddle and trickled over the edge, while the echidna glided carefully down. His care was warranted, as this turned out to be one of the shafts with spikes guarding the floor. One room led back the way they'd come, though on a lower level, tunneling into the hill. The other was a portico leading out into another sunlit garden. Another chao garden, the guardian noted, looking at the tree types. Although... there was one here he didn't recall ever seeing before. As he moved out into the garden for a closer look he heard a startled squeak, and looked down to see one of the white chao pressed back against the low wall around the garden.

"Hello there, little one," he said, keeping his voice just above a whisper as he slowly crouched down. He didn't want to frighten it further, especially with Chaos, the guardian of the chao, standing right behind him. The blue eyes blinked warily at him. The soft point that capped the skull of most toddler chao was missing, replaced by two little buds at the top of the head. It wasn't entirely white, he saw; the extremities shaded to blue and the tummy was yellow. "You're a pretty little thing," he crooned softly. "You don't need to be afraid of me; I'm the guardian of the island, which means I protect the chao, too."

The chao burbled something at him, then sidled along the wall until it could dive forward into a clump of bushes. Knuckles stood up again, chuckling, and turned his attention back to the strange tree. He picked up one of the fallen fruit, half-eaten by a chao. Unlike the other fruit he was familiar with, this one was a bright, squash-yellow, and rather oblong, like a short, fat cucumber. He sniffed it; nope, not an odor he recognized. He put the fruit down again and looked back towards Chaos. His guide waggled two fingers at him. When the echidna frowned, Chaos waved a hand at a chao fruit tree, stabbing a finger at the chao-head-shaped fruit. Then it held up one finger. Next it pointed at the tree behind Knuckles and held up two fingers.

After a moment's thought Knuckles repeated the other's motions: point at chao fruit, one finger, point at yellow fruit, two fingers. Then he held up three fingers and asked, "Where?" The guardian of the chao seemed quite pleased, and stabbed a finger towards the ground. "Underground?" wondered Knuckles aloud. Then he realized, "Oh, it grows in caves?" He still didn't know exactly what 'it' was, but Chaos affirmed that 'it' did indeed live in caves. Then it motioned him onwards, past one of the top-shaped conveyances that dotted the landscape. Whether by magic or magnetism, they always returned to their bases after use. Knuckles didn't use this one, but walked on past. Then Chaos stopped in front of an wall covered in vines. Searching among the stalks and leaves, it found what it was looking for and beckoned him forward. Knuckles peered at the carved wall, and gasped as he made out the details of the carvings. Quickly he pulled down several handfuls of overgrowth to uncover the triptych.

Three panels of carving, framed in intricate geometric reliefs. Each panel had three prominent carvings on a background of low relief crosshatching. The central panel he recognized at once: a chao head, a water drop, and Chaos' head carved into the ancient marble. The left hand side, the top one was again a chao head, but it bore the double bud of the white chao, and a ring floating above in place of the normal chao bobble. Also, the eyes were enormous. Beneath it was . . . something abstract he couldn't identify . . . and a sort of rabbit head, with lop ears like Cream and the same huge eyes and halo that the chao head above it had. On the right of the chao/Chaos panel were another three carvings. A chao head with a longer, kinked point, a spiky ball replacing the bobble, and maliciously slanted eyes; what appeared to be a flame; and a demon's head complete with horns and crafty expression. Another blob of fire hovered above its head.

Knuckles traced the carvings thoughtfully with his glove tip. _Chao in the middle. Angelic-looking chao with the buds like that white toddler. And another, evil-looking chao. Good, neutral and evil? But below them . . . water, fire, and . . . aha! Air. That's what that is, a sort of picture of wind or an, an air-puff. _He frowned slightly, even in his head that terminology sounded weird. _Hmmph. Anyway . . . fire, water and air . . . Those can't really be good or evil. Fire can burn and destroy, but air and water can also destroy, and fire can warm or cook. Wait, what did Tikal say in the dream? 'Of fire, air and water born'! But . . . the chao are Chaos' children, and he's water. And so are they, I guess, they're in the panel together. This must be an older version of the white chao; I remember seeing one with the big eyes, although I don't remember the halo. So those are air chao? Then this is a, a fire chao, and these . . . he looked at the lower row of carvings. Oh. My. Word._

"Three Chaoses." His voice sounded funny. He cleared his throat and repeated, "Three Chaoses." He turned to the being behind him, "You're water, and there are two more Chaoses... Chaos... Chaoi? Whatever the plural is, you're one of three?"

The oval green eyes regarded him unblinkingly as the creature nodded. "So where are the others?" Knuckles asked. Chaos paused, shrugged a little, then made a wide sweep of its hand. "Not on the island," the echidna guessed. Chaos nodded, which Knuckles almost misinterpreted; Chaos tended to be a bit literal, so that nod meant 'yes, _not_ on the island'. Are they . . . uh, trapped? Like you were?" Another shrug. And now for the key question: "Why have I been told about them now?"

Chaos went into an elaborate bit of pantomime, indicating Knuckles, himself, the carvings, and the Master Emerald. And the Island. Knuckles groaned to himself. He still wasn't clear on the precise details, but something was going to go seriously wrong with either the Master Emerald or Angel Island if the other two Chaos were not brought here. Chaos' explanation of why it hadn't been a problem before was undecipherable. Finally Knuckles gave it up. "I'm going back to the shrine now," he informed the other. "I'll decide what to do in the morning." It was now late enough that it'd be dark by the time he got back. Besides, perhaps one of the dream-guides would turn up and give him an understandable explanation while he slept. He snorted to himself as he started back; he should BE so lucky.


	5. The Egg Cave

4. The Egg Cave

The two echidnas walked through the lowering twilight, each carrying an egg in either hand. The female, copper-furred with an odd splash of yellow across her face, kept starting nervously and staring into the dark woods at each chirp and rustle. The male paced stolidly along beside her, dark brown and heavily scarred. Only his grey face showed his age.

"Relax, Mutal," grunted the brown warrior. "It is only birds and frogs."

"Yes, Uaxactun," replied the other. But a few paces on she jumped again, and asked, "Are we _certain _that the monster has left?"

Uaxactun gave her an odd, sidelong glance. "A rather strange question, since it was your sister who confounded the beast when our best warriors could do nothing."

"Half-sister," she snapped, her voice angry and almost afraid. "My mother was Chixalan, hers was Teaochal. And we do not _know _what happened to the beast, only that when the waters subsided, as suddenly as they had come, our father and his strongest warriors lay drowned on dry land; and my sister had vanished, as had the god's chao. The other chao lay dead by the warriors' weapons, and none have seen any since that day. Now," her voice suddenly grew bitter and scornful, "now this new 'seer' comes and tells us –us, the echidnas, as if _he _has any right to tell us what to do - he tells us that we must bring our eggs to this site, and leave the city that we built–"

"Which is dead," interrupted the warrior. "These eggs have no parents, and there are too few of us to foster and raise them. This seer is held in great respect by his people the Lions, and by other races as well. And . . . Auram the Seer had sent several messages to our chieftain warning him of what would befall if he persisted, but Pachacamac would not listen."

"No more should he have! The echidnas are the most powerful of the races; it is our right to rule. Were it not so, the gods would not have _granted _us the power stones, not one! And we have not merely one, but seven; and the King of the power stones as well. Why else would the gods have gifted them to us if we were _not _intended to rule!"

The scarred warrior merely shook his head as the two stepped out of the woods into a clearing at the foot of a cliff. A small rill splashed down over several levels of rock to form a shallow pool, then flowed away into the forest, muttering to itself. Nearby a cave led into the side of the cliff. The rest of the area was carpeted in fall flowers and yellowing grass. The warrior marched across the small field with Mutal still complaining at his side and ducked into the cave.

Inside were nearly two dozen eggs: a half-dozen blue-and-yellow chao eggs with one black and one silver among them to one side; and several rows of smaller, rounded eggs to the other. These had a more leathery appearance to their shells, almost like crocodile or turtle eggs.The female echidna fell silent as they entered, and the two moved to place their burdens in front of those already present, starting a new row of eggs. Then the warrior looked over and rasped quietly, "Do you see what we are doing, Knuckles?"

And as suddenly as that, Knuckles was there, no longer the disembodied observer (though he had not been aware of being disembodied) but present in the cave. At the same time Mutal had vanished, and the number of echidna eggs increased significantly. And Knuckles _knew _Uaxactun, though he had never known his name before; this scarred elder warrior was one of his dream-guides.

The red echidna swallowed, not certain why he was nervous, and said, "You are bringing eggs to this cave, sir. Echidna eggs?" He felt vaguely ashamed at the question - what sort of person didn't recognize the source of his own kind? - but, of course, he had never seen an echidna egg, or even another live echidna. And although he was of course familiar with the concept of sex and somewhat aware of the mammalian mechanics of same, as related to his own people specifically he had only the scant knowledge that they laid eggs. Although, he had always pictured something more like a large bird's or chao's egg, not these reptilian-looking things.

"Echidna eggs," the old warrior nodded. "Echidna eggs, from parents who were either lost entirely or unable to support them after the disaster that destroyed the Empire." The grey eyes looked at Knuckles speculatively. "One of them is yours, you know."

"Mine?" gasped the startled guardian. His mind raced, trying to figure out what other revelations the elder was offering; Uaxactun always had more than one, and expected Knuckles to work them out himself. "My egg," he repeated. _My egg as in the one I hatched from, obviously, not an egg that I produced –er, sired. _Did he know this place? It had seemed vaguely familiar, but . . . there were a lot of waterfalls in clearings on the Island, and many more waterfalls without clearings. Just because it HAD been a clearing, it did not follow that it still was. He drew a blank, though, on the combination of waterfall, clearing and cave. He looked around the cave: sand floor, grey stone walls and ceiling - natural stone but relatively smooth - _hey wait! I can see but there's no light. Is that because of the dream?_ And then there were the eggs, and the two echidna warriors, one old and one young. _Past and present . . . and the eggs make the future? But no, I'm in one of the eggs. Me, Knuckles. Guardian of the– _He looked up at the elder again. "These are the Guardians' eggs. The remainder of the Knuckles tribe that keep watch over the Master Emerald."

The old - ancient - echidna nodded. "The Keepers of the seven power stones and their King. After the eggs were brought here, there was a terrible cataclysm, and a vast piece of land including the water god's violated shrine was torn from the Earth. The few remnants of the Knuckles tribe dwindled out of existence, for the females laid no more fertile eggs after that day. It was seen as the final punishment by the water god, for the Empire fell to the so-called 'lesser' races that it had enslaved and the other echidna tribes were slaughtered in their homes. This was the price we paid for Pachacamac's great pride, and his certainty that only echidnas of all races should live, and only the Knuckles, of all echidna tribes, should rule.

"But there is great danger coming now, and the King stone must stay where it is, or draw the danger even faster. The power stones of the echidna are but one tribe, and that balance has been challenged and stretched recently, as an old tribe returned and left again; and a second invaded and was called home. They had existed all as one until the bird god banished the first tribe of stones, and the fire god the second, but now they call between worlds and must be restored to all or all will vanish."

Knuckles gaped at his teacher. "And you expect me to go find these, these stone tribes?" He wasn't sure what the old warrior was talking about. _In fact, I'm not even sure what he just said! _The power stones, okay, those were the Chaos Emeralds, and he supposed that the group of seven could be called a 'tribe', but a tribe that came and went and went and called . . . or what? He rubbed his face. The light in the cave seemed to be getting brighter. "I can take the Master Emerald with me; it will shrink if I command–"

"No," interrupted Uaxactun, "you must go to recall the tribes to all, but the King stone must stay _here_, it is not safe for it to leave."

"Uh, okay," Knuckles puzzled over that a bit._ Leave the 'recalling tribes' bit for now. Focus on the part you understand. _"I can ask Chaos to watch it, I guess."

"Good," the elder nodded, "the water god's chao was the original Guardian. So, you must find the other gods' chao to show you where their Kings have gone. You must return each King stone to its place, for balance and to recall its tribes as they were created and are re-created."

That 'explanation' lost Knuckles completely, and as he stated to ask for clarification he realized it was _extremely _bright in the cave . . . bright enough he had to squint . . . he could barely see the other echidna for the glare . . . . He turned his head sharply as he found himself staring into the rising sun from the top of the shrine, blinking to clear the afterimages.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes. "**That** was a weird dream," he said aloud. He looked at the Emerald. "So now what am I supposed to do? Find the cave? The 'stone tribes'? And how?"

The facets of the green stone flashed, and then, as had happened before, an image appeared. Two images, actually, on adjacent facets. One was the cave mouth from his dream, with the waterfall still cascading into a pool; the other was the echidna pyramid in Mystic Ruins.

Ignoring the pyramid a moment, he leaned closer to the facet showing the cave and pool. He did know where that was, he realized; it was a chao garden now, where the little creatures tended their fruit trees. The stream was no longer there, and it was situated so close to the edge of the main Angel Island that one side of the clearing dropped down a cliff, but he knew where it was. The forest was also gone, the route to the garden now lay across the rolling hills beyond Marble Gardens. "I'll start there," he said. He didn't recall ever going into the cave before, but now that he knew about it he had to go look. The spot where he had been– well, not born exactly, but... stored?_ That's a phrase with an odd ring to it. But maybe I can get another egg there, and then I won't have to be alone? There were lots of eggs in my dream. Not that I know the first thing about hatching or raising a baby, but . . . it would be nice not to be so alone._ With that wistful thought he stood up and stretched. "So, let's head for Mystic Ruins while I go to this cave," he said, and felt the odd sensation that meant the island would in fact travel where he wanted to go. He'd never figured out if that was the Master Emerald's doing or some magic inherent to Angel Island itself. Whichever, he knew the Island was now headed towards the land-bound remains of the Echidnan Empire, not too far from the human-settled area of Station Square.

He skipped his exercises this morning, figuring he'd get enough exercise crossing the island to the chao garden; instead he ducked into the cave just long enough for a quick wash and a change of socks. He decided to change his gloves after he returned, since they weren't dirty now but certainly would be by the time he got back. Then he set out across the island once again.

He took the overland route again, gliding and bouncing across the overgrown mushrooms to the marble ruins, then gliding as much as possible from hillside to hillside. This time he spotted another of the odd yellow-fruit trees, and a full grown white chao. It was busy with something, so he crept quietly up behind it for a better look. As he positioned himself on a low branch where he could see but not be easily seen, the chao turned more towards him. It was, presumably, a 'normal' white chao; at least it looked like a mature version of the toddler, with no real alteration to shape or shading. The two changes he could see were that it did have huge, black eyes instead of the toddler's smaller blue ones, and the bobble above the head-buds was indeed shaped like a halo. The creature was jabbering away as he studied it, and a second soon joined it. This one, though . . . looked like Shadow, of all people. It was black, but not the solid or (rarely) shiny black that the echidna was familiar with. It had almost the shape of a running chao, but both its chest and the false quills on the head were marked with red stripes. The bobble seemed off, somehow, but there was a bush between it and Knuckles that kept him from identifying the oddity. The white chao passed a bright red fruit over to the black and red one and sat down in a sudden flare of false flowers. Knuckles recognized that effect. The white chao had just eaten half a heart fruit, and was offering the rest to its intended mate. The flowers weren't real; but they appeared around a chao in season, tall enough to conceal all but the bobble. The black gobbled down the proffered treat and plopped down next to the white - and the 'flowers' thickened, so that only the halo and a spiky bobble could be seen hovering above them. Knuckles nearly fell out of the tree. That 'Shadow chao' was one of the third set pictured on the carving; the one with the narrowed eyes . . . . As suddenly as they had appeared, the false flowers vanished, leaving the two chao calmly regarding each other across an egg that was a good two-thirds their own size. Knuckles blinked; it looked like every other normal chao egg he'd ever seen. Except for the rare, colored chao eggs, which hatched out chao of the same color, all the chao eggs he'd ever seen were blue and yellow, and this one was the same. What would happen to it, he wondered. It was too late in the season for it to hatch . . .

The chao had an intense, if squeaky, discussion, then the black one wandered off. The white one chirped louder, an apparent summons since three more chao promptly showed up. A green and yellow swimming chao waddled off, trailing its long ears behind it, but returned quickly with a little wheelbarrow. The quartet, which included one other white chao (with a different body type and marked with purple), hoisted the egg into the wheelbarrow and the swimming chao wheeled it off with the others balancing the vehicle from either side. Knuckles followed carefully, staying out of sight. He could find the cave after satisfying his curiosity about the fate of the egg.

At it turned out, the chao led _him_ to the cave of eggs. He watched them trundle the egg inside, then variously skip and fly out. The swimming chao dove into the pool and swam around a bit while the others wandered off. After a few minutes the long-eared swimmer hauled out and waddled away itself. Knuckles sighed with relief as he came down off of the boulder he'd been sprawled on; he'd seen that chao type swim for _days _if there was fruit close enough to the water, and in this garden there were coconuts not only fallen on the bank but actually floating in the pool. He looked around carefully, then made his way across the garden to the cave.

He wasn't actually certain why he didn't want the chao to see him enter. He vaguely felt as if he were doing something he shouldn't, intruding on a private space, but wasn't certain why he felt that either. Grumbling at himself, he paused on the threshold of the cave to let his eyes adjust.

It wasn't necessary. As in the dream, the interior of the cave was lit by a sourceless light. Not day-bright, but bright enough to see clearly, especially as it seemed to emanate from everywhere in the cave. As in the dream, about a half-dozen chao eggs clustered on one side of the cave. He could see where the wheelbarrow had been pushed in - and in fact, it had been left propped against the wall - and there were a blue and a translucent emerald egg in place of the black and silver in his dream. Unconsciously holding his breath, he turned eagerly towards the other side of the small cave . . . . And _un_like his dream, it was empty.

He blinked and rubbed his eyes, but the area remained empty. He walked over and scanned the ground, finding nothing but the dimples in the ground where the eggs had lain, and chao footprints. _Wait, what's missing? There are no eggshells. If the eggs are all hatched, or even if they were damaged, wouldn't there be eggshells?_ He knelt down and pawed at the sand with one hand, knowing it was useless, then pulled off one glove to sift the sand through his fingers. Distantly he registered that the light was brighter, but didn't pursue the thought, digging fruitlessly at the cool white grains.

"_I'm sorry, Knuckles. They're all gone." _The 'voice', heard as much with his brain as his ears, made him jump to his feet.

"Tikal!" He turned and looked up at the peach-colored ball of light that was the spirit-echidna's usual form now. "Where did they go? Did something happen to them? There were dozens of eggs in my dream! Where _are _they?"

The ball fuzzed a bit, expanded slightly, then diminished again. Finally it settled on dancing back and forth. _"There were dozens when the Island took flight, yes, but that was three thousand years ago. Uaxactun was the first guardian, and when his years grew too heavy on him, he took an egg from the cave and taught the chao to raise it; when it hatched, he raised the puggle to be his successor. As each guardian grew old, they retrieved an egg to succeed them; or the Master Emerald sent a chao when a guardian died unexpectedly, and trained the puggle in its dreams, as you were trained. But over three millennia, the eggs grew progressively fewer, and you– you truly are the last of the Knuckles tribe." _Tikal wavered uncertainly, her light dimming. _"I am sorry, Knuckles."_

Knuckles collapsed back onto the sand floor. He'd known, really, but - just for a moment - he'd allowed himself to hope. It was true then. He was alone in the world, except for a spirit-light; the last of the once-proud Knuckles tribe. "Wait," he looked up suddenly. "The last of the _Knuckles tribe_, you said. Tikal, are there more echidnas out there?"

There was a long pause. Finally the peach-colored light dropped down to his eye level, somehow giving the impression of a sigh. _"I do not know, Knuckles. I spent nearly all the three thousand years in the Master Emerald with Chaos. The Master Emerald does not know, only that no echidnas except the guardians and myself have been on the island since it took flight." _

Knuckles did sigh. "Never mind, Tikal. I've spent most of my life believing that I was all that was left. If it is so, then that only proves I've been right all these years. Do you know anything about these 'stone tribes' I'm supposed to look for? Or the other gods that Uaxactun mentioned?"

Tikal brightened a bit, flaring with apparent relief that she could help_. "Yes, but it is a long story. Shall we go out where you can eat while you listen?"_

Knuckles stomach told him in no uncertain terms that it approved of the suggestion. It was past lunch and he'd had no breakfast. "Good idea," he said to Tikal, as he headed out into the garden. The spirit-light glided along beside him.


	6. Fire, Air and Water

5. Fire, Air and Water

Once Knuckles had helped himself to some of the fruit from the chao garden outside the egg cave, he made himself comfortable with his back to a smooth trunk. A few leaves drifted down to land in the still pool. Tikal settled herself about two feet above the water's surface, her glow reflecting off the faint ripples raised by the leaves. Compared to the dappled sunlight under the trees, the spirit-light was fairly dim. It occurred to Knuckles that one reason he might not see her often could just be that she wasn't very visible during the day unless she intentionally brightened her light. "Ready when you are," he prompted, as he took a bite out of a tart triangle fruit.

The spirit-light bobbed slightly in acknowledgement, but it was several minutes before the daughter of Pachacamac began to speak. _"You know the chao, and you know a little about Chaos," _she said finally. _"First, I think, tell me what you know of it, so I can be sure we are not speaking at cross purposes."_

Knuckles blinked, marshaling his thoughts. "Um," he began, "Chaos is a chao god that is guardian of the chao, and the Master Emerald, and was sealed in the Emerald because it went mad when the ancient Echidnas tried to steal the 'power stones' as they called them. It can shape itself into all sorts of things, like water can be any shape, and it can . . . um, dissolve . . . to go down drains and things and then remerge itself to a single being. It used to appear to the echidnas when there was grave trouble, but that was before the Empire, I think; and of course, it couldn't do that while it was in the Master Emerald, even if it had been so inclined. When Eggman gave it the Chaos Emeralds it turned into a monster, still raging after 3,000 years, but Super Sonic managed to beat sense into it somehow and it became peaceful again.

"Now, it lives on the island somewhere, and I rarely see it except when there is real trouble afoot, like that Gizoid thing that Sonic found."

Tikal's light drifted slowly from side to side as she considered his little speech_. "You are right as to Chaos' powers and history," _she said at last, _"but not about what it is. I have heard some others call it a god too, since we were freed from the Master Emerald, but it is not." _

"No?" interrupted the red Guardian. "But the writings in the Marble Gardens . . . no it was in Mystic Ruins, in the pyramid there, they said Chaos was a water god." He'd seen the 'writings' - actually carvings - himself, and the reading of the ancient language was one of the things his dream-guides had taught him.

He got a distinct impression of Tikal tilting her head in puzzlement, which was a good trick for a ball of light. _"They did? That . . . should not be. Chaos was not the water god, only sacred to the god. The chao are minor water spirits, lesser nature spirits; Chaos is a greater one. But not a god, merely a messenger." _The light danced again. _"I think I would like to see the writings. There may be more about the other two there as well. But first, let me finish what I was going to tell you, since we have another hour or two before we get to Mystic Ruins._

"_The ancient races - at least the ones that concern us - recognized three main gods. They believed that everything in this world was created by one or more of three elements acting on earth, which simply __**was**__. The elements, being ac__**tive**__, were seen as having a controlling god that kept them in check, and that would unleash them if angered. Thus there were, long ago, temples to the water god, the fire god and the air god. This was before even the Ancient Echidnas, and the names of the gods have been lost if they were ever known; I only know that the god of air was often called the bird god, as well."_ Knuckles started a little at that term, but didn't interrupt. The spirit maiden continued,_ "Each god had an associated chao type, and a special chao of that type that . . . watched over the rest. And each god had a set of power stones, the mystic number being seven, with a King stone to rule each type. These are the 'tribes' that Uaxactun spoke of. The water god's power stones were given their name after Chaos destroyed the Empire, and are now called 'Chaos Emeralds'. I do not know if the others have been renamed as well, but there was a set that controlled flames, and another that manipulated time itself. The latter were destroyed or banished by the bird god when he repudiated his followers in Babylon, for the creation of the puppet named 'Everything'."_

"Everything?" Knuckles frowned. The way she'd said that seemed to imply he should know what she meant . . . .

"'_Gizoid', is the original word, I think."_

_That _name, Knuckles knew. He remembered very well the robot that Sonic had brought around, calling it 'Emerl' because it– "But the Gizoid was powered by Chaos Emeralds," he protested. He remembered it quite well, because when it acquired all seven it went berserk and had to be smashed by Sonic - who came out rather the worse for the fight himself.

The light skipped back and forth in a nay-saying fashion_. "It can use the power of the Chaos Emeralds, but the original designers meant for it to use the stones of the air god, the stones of time control."_

"The Time Stones!?" Knuckles sat up straight. "But, but Sonic had those at one point, he sent them back to Planet Small - or something. He never said anything about an air god!" The echidna frowned again, scratching his head. "He did say they were the only things he'd encountered that felt like the Chaos Emeralds, except for the Sol Emeralds."

Now it was Tikal's turn to be puzzled. _"I am not familiar with 'Sol Emeralds'."_

"Eh, they're more Blaze's forte than ours; she controls fire– Oh." He propped his chin on his hands, eyes darting as he thought rapidly. "When you say banished, you mean to another dimension? Because Blaze is from one, and she controls fire and uses the Sol Emeralds the same way that Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds. Although," he added reflectively, "Sonic hardly controls water - he's terrified of it.

"But when Blaze came the first time, it was because Eggman had stolen the Sol Emeralds and brought them here, to this world. But Tails said there was a space-time tear and a disaster would happen if we didn't send them back. So we can't bring them here or something awful will happen. Not to mention that Blaze struck me as one tough kitty; she'd rip me to shreds if I stole her Emeralds, and even if she had to come here to do it, she would." He hadn't met Blaze except briefly, but she'd left an impression of cold competence and dedication, traits he could admire, but... She had not seemed particularly friendly and he didn't like the idea of trying to explain why he needed to take her Emeralds. Actually, he still wasn't certain why he needed to take her Emeralds.

"_I do not know if Tails was correct about the potential disaster," _said Tikal, _"but the problem there was that you had the other dimension's Sol Emeralds in this one. What you must do is restore the ones that belong here, and to do that you must find the correct King stone and call them back."_

"Just like that, huh," replied the Guardian skeptically. "Any ideas how?"

"_Not at the moment," _admitted Tikal ruefully. _"But we're over Mystic Ruins now. Shall we go look at the writings in the pyramid?"_

"May as well." Knuckles stood and stretched. "Wait, are you coming too?"

"_If you don't mind. I've never had a chance to look at the inside of the pyramid."_

He turned to look at her. "It was there when you were alive, wasn't it?"

"_Yes, but females were forbidden to enter the warriors' complex. We were permitted to serve at the old shrines only because the warriors considered those gods too weak or obsolete to be worth their time."_

"Oh." He set off towards the edge of the island while he digested that bit of info. "Sometimes, I don't think I'd have liked my people very much," he sighed.

"_They were people. Good, bad, weak, and strong; unfortunately at that time the ones at the top were both strong and greedy, and . . . so certain that they were __**right **__that they would heed no warnings."_

Knuckles looked over at the spirit-light, feeling her grief as much as hearing it. The one at the top had been her own father, Pachacamac, who had ordered his warriors forward - literally over the top of her - as she pleaded for mercy and common sense. And yet, she had clearly loved him, enough to grieve for his faults even though she did not condone them. "I'm sorry," he said softly.

She did not reply, but the light seemed to strengthen a bit. He looked down over the edge as they arrived. They weren't nearly as high up as he'd feared; the island had settled as far as it could into the enormous hole that it had initially been torn from. Changes over the last three thousand years, including the leaking of lava at the time the land had been torn asunder, meant that it could not truly fit in anymore, but at least he could measure his glide in hundreds of feet rather than thousands. The pyramid's crowning stela rose above the surrounding jungle, marking his target. Knuckles took a deep breath and launched himself into space, aiming for the stone spire.

It turned out to be further than he could manage in a single glide; the air was still cool enough that there were no thermals to give him lift. So, he landed on a large limb and worked his way from tree to tree until he found a path going in the desired direction, then climbed down. It wasn't a game trail, he noted; someone came this way regularly, for there were no encroaching vines and any overhanging branches had been cut back. At the same time, the path itself seemed too wide - a few grasses and forbs narrowed the trail where light managed to fall through the branches, but the trees came no closer than about six feet apart. Puzzled, Knuckles paused a moment to dig at the edge of the trail. About five inches below the surface was a granite block. A bit of judicious excavation revealed that the block was at least six inches thick, which meant that this had been a road in the days of the Empire, one of the stone-paved trade roads. "Still dunno who's keeping it clear," he muttered to himself. "Probably a human, those branches are out of reach for most dokan." He wasn't sure he liked the idea of humans clambering around on the ruins. Although he'd met several of the explorers and they seemed to be okay folks, these were _Echidnan _ruins and humans had no business there. But it was that exact reason that had made him keep silent about it - it wasn't that he felt they were desecrating hallowed spots, it was that the humans had no right to enter areas dedicated to their 'betters'. Which was exactly the attitude that had gotten the Empire into trouble, and not one Knuckles was happy at having to acknowledge in himself. But none of this was getting him where he needed to go, so he scraped the dirt back into the hole and headed for the pyramid again. Struck by a sudden thought, he asked, "Tikal? Are you there?" The only answer was the normal sounds of the jungle. He shrugged. Either she hadn't been able to leave Angel Island, or she'd meet him at the pyramid.

The area around the pyramid was boxed by ruins, the great formal complex that only the warriors had been allowed to enter. These had mostly collapsed, either due to Angel Island's being wrenched from the earth or simply victims of time, and the jungle had overgrown them as it had not been able to take over the road. A few things still stood, moss covered but nearly intact, and one structure that had survived was a ceremonial pool. Knuckles had nearly passed it when he was hailed. Turning in surprise, he recognized a huge, purple cat.

"Hello, Big," he said. "What are you doing here?" _Stupid question, what does he ever do?_

"Fishing," answered the cat predictably enough. Knuckles didn't know the cat well, but to the best of his knowledge all the cat ever _did_ was wander around the jungle a bit and fish at any body of water he came across. "Froggy says to say hi to the water monster for him," Big continued.

"I'm sorry?" The echidna wasn't sure he'd heard that right.

"Froggy," repeated the cat, indicating a large green and gold frog perched on a stump nearby, "says to say hi to the water monster." The frog was regarding Knuckles with an uncomfortably intense stare, in direct contrast to the cat who'd scarcely glanced up before returning his gaze to his bobber.

"Oh. Uh, why?" Presumably the cat was referring to Chaos - he and the frog had gotten caught up in that mess in Station Square - but Knuckles couldn't figure out–

"Because he ate the shiny stone, and a little bit of the monster's tail was on it. So the water monster was part of him, and then it ate him and he was part of it. So, he says hi." This obviously made good sense to Big, but Knuckles didn't follow it at all.

Still, no harm in agreeing, and he didn't really have time to pursue the matter. "Okay. Tell him I will. Uh, I've got to go now."

"Okay," came the amiable reply. "Bye-bye."

"Um, bye." Knuckles hurried towards the pyramid. Big was rather simple, but pleasant enough. He was also twice the height of most dokan - six feet to Knuckles' three - and more than twice as heavy. On reflection, it probably wasn't humans who'd been trimming the branches back there.

Now the lower rank of the pyramid could be seen ahead, and the Guardian soon stepped out into the ancient courtyard. As with the road, the paving blocks here had mostly resisted the influx of jungle, leaving the pyramid in the center of a clear space. At his approach the one stone guardian that still functioned uncurled; a stone echidna to warn off trespassers. The matching statue on the other side of the steps had been partially smashed, and no longer moved. Knuckles climbed the steps to the door, set into the throat of a stone serpent's head with gaping jaws. The glimmer of light that was Tikal was already there.

"Why a snake?" he asked. He'd wondered ever since his first visit to Mystic Ruins. There were no signs of snakes among the older carvings on Angel Island. It was largely a rhetorical question, but to his surprise, Tikal answered.

"_Because of how my father found the Master Emerald. It also is a part of how he took power." _She paused for a moment.

"_When my father was a boy, the air and fire gods were largely forgotten or ignored. The peasants brought food and offerings to the water god's shrine to beg the chao to take their petitions to the ears of the god himself. The nobles did too, on occasion– either secretly, so as not to be ridiculed for believing in peasant superstition, or grandly on feast days so they could display their piety and generosity for all to see. The soldiers and a few others worshiped the snake god, who desired sacrifices of sweat or blood, and granted them the ability to strike as silently as a snake, and defeat stronger foes, as a snake can devour prey larger than itself. My father, of course, became one of the snake god's devotees, and when word came of an enormous anaconda that was ravaging a village and eating the villagers along with their livestock, he considered it a trial sent by the god and took it as a personal quest. When he killed the snake - and this statue we stand in is the same size as the actual snake's head - he found that it had at some point swallowed a power stone - although larger by far than any he had ever seen. The gifting of the King power stone, that which you call the Master Emerald now, secured his claim to become the next chieftain, as well as marking him as a favored one of the snake god. Although he sent the Master Emerald to the water god's shrine as tradition decreed, and indeed replaced the original shrine with the far grander one you know now, he believed that the only real god was the snake god, and built this temple to him at the same time as the shrine was being done. The complex was already here, though not exclusive to the warriors, I believe. _

"_Anyway, once the old chieftain died, my father set his sights on conquest, even more so than his predecessors, and decided ultimately that to be completely victorious he must take the power stones from the shrine and use them... And you know the rest of that story."_

"Yes," agreed Knuckles. Pachacamac and his warriors had trampled Tikal and slaughtered the chao, arousing the wrath of Chaos, who had used the powers of the stones against not only the warriors but the entire capitol city of the Empire, and been restrained only when Tikal pledged her own soul to be sealed with Chaos if the Master Emerald could control it.

Still, if the snake was really that big - he looked in awe at the stone head surrounding him - he could see why Pachacamac had believed that the gods must have sided with him. And the ancient chieftain must had been a truly incredible warrior to have slain such a beast single-handed. He pondered that as he pushed open the stone doors and stepped into the pyramid. Tikal floated above his shoulder, providing enough light to see by.


	7. Inside the Pyramid

6. Inside the Pyramid

The entrance tunnel was fairly dark and sloped down steeply until they were actually underneath the massive structure. Knuckles stepped out into the first antechamber, lined by columns and, for some reason, typically flooded with four inches of water. The red echidna pulled off his shoes and waded up the hall until he could step onto the next level, where plants lined a pair of stone paths on either side of a waterspout shaped like a snake's head. The water flowing from the serpent's mouth splashed into a stone channel that carried it to spill onto the floor below. Knuckles had been there before, but this time something suddenly occurred to him. "It's light," he said aloud to Tikal. "Where does the light come from?" Although deeper levels - which were actually outside the boundaries of the surface structure - used light wells and mirrors to guide sunlight down into the rooms, he had climbed around the pyramid enough to know that there weren't any cracks or windows to let light into the heart of the building itself.

The peach light - paler now in the diffused sunlight, looped around him once and darted around the room near the ceiling. Then it disappeared into the angle between wall and ceiling. Shortly after, the spirit ball returned, then flared and fuzzed, abruptly reshaping itself. A young female echidna now stood in front of Knuckles, her peach-toned fur much paler than his bright red. Unlike him, she lacked the spikes that gave the Knuckles tribe their name, and in addition to gloves and sandals, she wore a patterned green skirt and white top. "There's a light well in one of the nearby buildings - or what's left of it," she said. In this form her voice sounded normal, without the mental overtones that the spirit-light had. "The light's reflected over here by mirrors. The ceiling is actually several inches higher than the top of the walls, although you can't see it from floor level. I'm surprised the reflectors haven't clogged up with grime or something after all this time."

"There's another room that uses mirrors to light your path," said Knuckles. "And those are all still good too, come to think of it." He considered a moment, then shrugged. "I don't think it matters right now; one quest at a time please!"

Tikal laughed. She shook her head in mock despair and sighed, "Oh very well . . . if you have NO sense of adventure."

"Nope," agreed Knuckles, "none at all." He watched her shaking her braids again, out of the corner of his eye. He wondered if that had been a habit when she was alive, or if it was simply in enjoyment of having a body again. He passed through the doorway in the wall behind the snake fountain - the lintel of which was also adorned in carved serpents - and jogged down the long tunnel behind it. The far end of the tunnel was trapped, where the ancient echidnas had somehow channeled geothermal energy to lift super-heated blocks of stone into the passage at random. Right at the junction of the safe portion and the trapped one, however, was a carved serpent with holes drilled for eyes. Knuckles punched one fist against the snake, and as soon as his namesake spikes slipped into the vacant eye sockets, the blocks stopped their restless heaving. The two echidnas continued down the tunnel.

"Tikal . . ." he began, then hesitated. He rarely asked her about herself, partly because she usually deflected such queries.

"Yes?" the aqua eyes glanced curiously over at him.

"Um, why don't you have spikes? I thought we were the Knuckles tribe because we all had spiked knuckles."

"The males all had spiked knuckles, yes. I'm female, so I would only have spikes if I was clutching. That's what they were originally for, you know."

"Clutching?" Knuckles cast her a puzzled look. "You mean they appear if you grab something?"

Tikal giggled at the confusion on his face. "No, Knuckles. 'Clutching', as in incubating a clutch of eggs. Echidnas have spikes on their fists in place of an egg tooth, but a day or so after hatching the spikes fall off. Usually, the males lose theirs for good, but the females will regrow theirs temporarily to help the babies hatch, then shed them again. The hallmark of the Knuckles tribe is that the males never loose their spikes after hatching." Her face suddenly lost all trace of humor. "Fa– Pachacamac ordered that any male infants who did were to be abandoned outside the city, because they would never grow to be warriors. Any female infants who retained theirs were also exposed, because the gods had clearly put a warrior in the wrong body by accident, so the body must die so the warrior could be put into a correct one." She hugged herself suddenly, shivering, although the tunnel was still warmed by the heat below even though the traps were quiescent. Knuckles looked at her, and hesitantly reached out a hand - he wasn't altogether certain he _could _touch Tikal, and waving a hand through her seemed rather rude. Fortunately, she was tangible, and his hand made gentle contact with her shoulder. Of course, that left him standing rather awkwardly with no idea what to say.

She looked up at his embarrassed expression, and a faint spark of amusement returned to her eyes. She pressed one hand lightly against his and then stepped away, saying "The past was what it was. We'd better get going."

The two echidnas continued down the trapped path, until Knuckles used his knuckle spikes to unlock a door hidden below another stone snake. The ramp behind it enabled the pair to bypass the water-snake elevator (an enormous wooden snake that floated up and down as the water level within its chamber rose and fell) and the hall of mirrors, and brought them out into a large cavern lit by a light well. The shaft of light beamed directly down onto a small stone hut that had once been used for dream quests. Beyond the questing cave was the Grand Hall, with the shifting wall panels that somehow could alter gravity in their vicinity. Knuckles tapped the closest switch until the correct panels slid into place and lit up, then casually started walking straight up the wall. Halfway up - several stories of a normal building - a thought occurred to him, and he crouched to inspect the glowing center of the panel he was standing on.

"Knuckles, what are you doing?" Tikal sounded alarmed.

"I want to see something," the guardian replied calmly. Then he glanced up at the echidna maiden shifting nervously beside him. "We won't fall, you know. And it wouldn't hurt you if you did fall, would it? You could just go back to being a ball of light."

"I'm not actually sure what would happen if I were injured in this form," answered Tikal doubtfully. "But . . ." Her form fuzzed and the echidna girl was replaced by the peach spirit light again. _"What __**are**__ you looking for, anyway?"_

"Hmm? Oh, I just thought that these glowing stones might be like the ones that sent all those robots crazy, last time we ran into Jet and the Rogues. Those things could change their local gravity too." He noticed that the light beside him was vibrating slightly and frowned. "You really are scared of this wall, aren't you?"

"_I– I don't like heights." _

Feeling vaguely guilty, Knuckles stood and jogged on up to the tunnel mouth at the top of the panels. He found several Eggman robots up there, some sort of fish-looking thing and a chameleon that faded in and out of view. _Just as well Tikal's disembodied, that's one less target for them to strike at. _He smashed the globular red fish easily enough (it had apparently run out of fuel for the flames that once shielded it), but it took several false starts before he managed to get a hand on the chameleon, catching hold of its long tongue. Once he had hold of it, the camouflage was useless, and a good blow broke the head right off the body and permitted the tiny lion trapped within to escape. The little creature, and the fish's tiny gorilla, disappeared into the shadows before Knuckles could grab them. He hoped they would be all right, but they had reached the mosaic, which drove thoughts of robots and animals out of his mind.

Perfect Chaos. . . . The name was apt, for Chaos enraged and possessed of the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds was a completely different being from the three-foot-high, bipedal blob of water that now lived on the floating island. The mosaic in front of them was dominated by a central panel depicting the draconic head and neck of the monster. Knuckle knew from personal experience that the thing was easily ten stories tall, far larger than even the temple complex buildings. Waves of inlaid turquoise and lapis lazuli crashed around the creature, with portions of buildings visible as they were washed away. A part of a face, perhaps, and a hand could be seen in the churning water. To either side of the center piece was a panel inlaid with nine stone echidna heads above a narrow band of mosaic showing drowned buildings, only their tops visible above the waves. Below were the Chaos Emeralds, two on each side panel, with the remaining three underscoring the disastrous Chaos mural. "It's no wonder they thought it a god," he commented to Tikal, who had helpfully drifted up to better light the mosaics and carvings.

"_True. Chaos' power was enormous as it fed off the emotions in the Chaos Emeralds . . . . The warriors were actually feeding it power, you know."_

"What?" Knuckles frowned up at the spirit-light. "Why would they - wouldn't that just make things worse?"

"_They didn't know they were doing it. But the Chaos Emeralds absorb emotions and transmute them to power, and they took in all the fear and anger that the warriors felt, and the terror of the women and children as they woke to find their houses washing away and themselves drowning. Chaos' fury called to the anger and gloried in the terror and so the creature drew ever more power from the Emeralds as its victims suffered. That was why I had to step in and beg the Master Emerald to control the other Emeralds and seal Chaos away, before its power grew great enough to destroy the world."_

The red echidna rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he considered her words. "I see," he said finally. "But we came to read the inscriptions, and this isn't getting it done." He scowled at the water below him. A raised walkway led from the door they had entered through to the dais on which he stood, beneath the mosaic. On either side however was a dark pool of water with three pillars rising out of each. The inscriptions he needed were on the pillars, not on the walls themselves. With a grimace he stepped down into the waist-deep water and waded out to the closest column. "There sure better not be anything living down here," he grumbled.

"_What did you say?"_

"Nothing," he growled. The water was _cold_, and the stones underfoot slick with algae. "Just get over here so I can see the writing." He usually took a flashlight when he went treasure hunting, but it hadn't occurred to him this time. The pyramid's areas were usually sufficiently lit by light wells. To actually read the carvings, though, would require better light than he currently had. Evidently it was clouding up out there.

"_Oh, yes, of course. I am sorry." _

Knuckles realized that he was acting like one of the old echidna males, ordering her around. He felt slightly ashamed of himself, but he could barely feel his toes and he thought something had just bumped into his leg. He waded closer to the pillar as the peach light drew closer and brightened.

"Hmm. It starts . . . here. He traced a finger lightly over the ancient runes as he translated. "'The feathered ones sent an emissary to King Techlipotican, an emissary that was neither bird nor beast.' Hmm," he interrupted himself, "this carving looks almost like the ones in Gigan Rocks. 'The water god Chaos met with the feathered ones' god Chaos as the sea waves meet the air.'"

"_That can't be right," _said Tikal. The carvings seemed to shift as the spirit light glided forward to hover in front of Knuckles' nose. _"Chaos wasn't a god. Isn't a god. Chaos is– was believed to be the servant, or messenger, of the water god."_

"An avatar,"agreed Knuckles ducking his head away. The light was a bit bright shining directly into his eyes. "Wait . . . ." He leaned forward again. "Tikal, move to the left, just a litt– there! Stop."

He frowned at the carvings a moment, then slowly started to grin. "You're right. You were right and I was wrong. The carvings are a bit damaged here, but with the light at the right angle the marks can still be seen. 'The water god's chao met with the feathered ones' god's chao, as the sea waves meet the air.' As the sea waves meet the air? Wonder what exactly they were doing." He smirked, and got the distinct impression that the spirit-ball was glowering at him. He quickly returned to the carvings. "Hem. The rest of it looks like a list of gifts brought and given. Heh, it includes 'stones that pull when they glow'. And then: 'In the end the emissary and the god's chao returned to the feathered ones, impressed by the honor and might of the king.' But," the frown returned again, "who were the 'feathered ones'? And this emissary, 'neither bird nor beast'? It looks like a bird with ears." Tikal didn't reply, and Knuckles pondered the question. He was coming up with an answer he didn't like, but it was looking like the only real answer. Three or four thousand years ago there just hadn't been that many civilizations that could greet the Echidnas as equals. He scanned the rest of the carvings on the pillar, but they were mostly the boasts of a prosperous kingdom. He sloshed around to the other pillars and found similar bragging, growing more echidna-centric as the Knuckles tribe gained power and the kingdom shifted towards empire. Eventually Pachacamac killed the snake and took rule, then the recording of the abortive attack on the shrine and subsequent destruction of the Empire and the echidnas. Wading back to the dry walkway he sat down and pondered the bits about the feathered ones and their emissary again. Finally he made a face and said, "I'll have to talk to the Rogues.


	8. The Gigan Ruins

7. The Gigan Ruins

Talking to the Babylon Rogues was a lot easier said than done. Knuckles spent most of his return to Angel Island trying to figure out the best way to do it . . . and if he could avoid it.

"_Why don't you want to talk to these people?" _asked Tikal, as he landed back on Angel Island. Despite the cloud cover, there were thermals aplenty so the glide back from the jungle had been relatively simple_. "Who are they, anyway?"_

The scarlet echidna sighed. "The Babylon Rogues are a group of thieves. They're headed by Jet the Hawk, who's every bit as vain and boastful as Sonic is. The strong-arm of the Rogues is an over-muscled brute of an albatross named Storm, who's about as bright as the Hydrocity at midnight. He's got no manners and a short temper, and he's always trying to start fights with me."

"_They don't sound very pleasant," _agreed Tikal. Knuckles shot a glance at the spirit-light; she sounded faintly - amused?

"Are you laughing at me?" he growled suspiciously.

"_Of course not! So, your friend Rogue the bat, is she part of the group too?"_

"Rog– oh, you mean _Rouge_ the bat. Um, no. She's a jewel thief only, and the Rogues aren't as picky about what they steal. There are only three of them, anyway; the third is the brains of the group, a swallow named Wave. I'm honestly not sure how she puts up with the others sometimes, but even Tails thinks she's got talent. At least as far as hoverboards and flying machines go."

"_Hoverboards?"_

"They're a bit after your time," Knuckles said. "I'd show you mine, but Tails has it at his shop. He's trying to work out a way to safely emulate the singles . . . singus . . . the black hole thingy so you can use the gravity shifts without actually _causing_ a black hole.

"Although, I suppose that should be the next stop, since I can hardly go after the Rogues on foot, and chasing them with a flying island is a bit awkward. I wonder which workshop he's at?"

Tikal was silent. He wondered if he'd confused her completely, but when he looked around her peach light was nowhere to be seen. With a sigh he returned to his cave and found the radio Tails had left him.

The fox cub was at his home near Central City, but volunteered to fly out to Angel Island with Knuckles' hover gear, and a tracker to help him locate odd power sources. Tails also was able to tell the echidna where to find Wave, if not the rest of the Rogues. He'd been collaborating with her on the singularity-generating gravity devices. The swallow was currently staying in a little town not too far from the Gigan Rocks. That was convenient from Knuckles' point of view; he'd wanted to check out the Gigan Rocks site again, just in case he'd missed any useful information. Since he'd been with Sonic the last time, he'd been rather rushed.

As soon had Tails had dropped off the hover gear, Knuckles set the Island on a course towards the Gigan Rocks. Chaos had simply turned up, standing silently beside the shrine and gazing into the dry ring that had once been a spring-fed pond. Tikal was also there, as herself again, sitting on the lower steps as he had seen in his dream, with a toddler chao on her lap. "Good luck," she wished him.

"Aren't you coming?" Knuckles wasn't surprised but vaguely disappointed.

The paler echidna shook her head. "If you could take the Master Emerald, I might be able to go, but if I travel too far from its power, I'm not sure I could stay–" she frowned, then finally concluded, "alive, I guess. It's not really the right word, but . . . ." she shrugged.

"Ah," said Knuckles. "Well, this is my hover gear. See, it floats." He powered it up and put it down, where it hovered several inches above the short grass. Tikal seemed suitably awed by the 'magic', so he gave her a short demonstration. Until he realized he was showing off, for a ghost, and that there were no living echidnas on the planet for him to show off to. He cut the demonstration short and said goodbye, then dove off the edge of the shrine islet and headed for the narrow valleys and canyons below.

He glided down until he was close enough to activate the hover board and rode it down the rest of the way. The Gigan Rocks were a maze of narrow valleys and short canyons, dotted with buildings in styles very similar to the classic 'oriental' style of humans. A lot of archaeologists debated which was first, or if both had sprung from the same origin. Getting in to the heart of the ruins was usually difficult, due to a number of devious (and often deadly) traps that had been set ages ago. Surprisingly few had failed through centuries of neglect; some apparently reset themselves. Knuckles had a suspicion that someone had been periodically visiting the area to tend and reset the traps, but he had no idea who. At any rate, by dropping in from above he avoided most of the problem areas.

He landed fairly close to ancient chalice that had once held a 'plume' from the 'divine wing'. That so-called plume had turned out to be a gravity control device that had once powered Babylon Gardens, until the quintet of said 'plumes' overloaded and summoned the 'lightless dark'. Or so the inscriptions around the chalice's altar said. He spent a few moments studying the mural that depicted the Babylon Gardens in flight - the divine wing of the gods - and a few minutes looking at the inscriptions again. Not finding any new information, he turned his attention to the chalice itself. It looked the same as the last time he'd seen it: a carved stone goblet, with an eared bird shrieking defiance on the front, the bird's wings framing the bowl of the vessel. The odd stone keyboard on the front of the altar had been damaged in a rockfall shortly before he and Sonic and Tails had arrived last time, and moss was now growing on the damaged areas. There was nothing in the bowl of the chalice other than a bit of dust and a few dried leaves.

Leaving the chalice altar, he turned towards the gate that was the usual entrance to the hidden valley. He was distracted by a glimmer of light, and paused to investigate, finding an ancient necklace behind one of the inscribed stone tablets that had been damaged by the rockfall. He twined the necklace through his fingers as he walked to the gate, admiring the inimitable gleam of gold in the sunlight. There was no pendant, but the piece was flat-braided in a herringbone pattern that somehow gave the impression of feathers. He stepped through the gate into a cavern and paused, waiting fur his eyes to adjust. As they did so, he spotted a familiar form.

She was hanging upside down, poking at one of the reliefs on the wall. The black tank top and pants she was wearing helped to camouflage her both by blending with the shadows and breaking up her outline, but the motion of her white arms drew the eye to her anyway.

Knuckles walked over silently until he was almost directly below her. "I think the Rogues might object to your carving up their heritage, Rouge," he said loudly.

The pale bat started violently at the sound of his voice and flashed him a furious glare as she caught herself, then let go of the wall and flipped to the ground. "Didn't anyone ever teach you not to startle someone in a precarious position?"

Knuckles put on an ostentatiously thoughtful look. "No," he answered, "I don't think anyone ever did. Comes of growing up all alone on a lost island, you see."

The bat grinned. "You're getting better," she observed. "You didn't used to answer back."

"'Civilization' has corrupted me," stated the echidna gravely. Then he repeated, "_Do_ the Rogues know what you're doing?"

"Actually, I'm only doing rubbings." She waved a piece of paper at him, revealing the impression of the carvings above. "The government has asked me to look into this place; between the initial World Grand Prix, the Gizoid, and the whole Meteortech business, they want to know what else the Babylonians might have tucked away. But none of their tame researchers can handle this sort of field work, what with all the traps in the area, so they asked me to make the copies and photos so they can look at them in safety."

"For which you're being well paid, of course."

"Of course." She raised an eyebrow at him. "You object to my being paid for my time? There are still a lot of traps in this area." Then she frowned. "Actually, some of the traps that I'm sure I had sprung or deactivated last visit seem to have been reset. Do the Rogues actually come here? I hadn't pegged Jet as being one to give more than beak-service to his 'glorious past'."

"I don't think they do," answered Knuckles, "but I've wondered about the traps myself. Ones that I knew I'd deactivated would be repaired when I returned. But I've never seen anyone here or heard of any other treasure hunters who had."

"Maybe whoever it is makes sure no one who sees them lives to tell. Plenty of treasure hunters have been killed by the traps over the years," Rouge pointed out. "What brings you here, anyway? Sonic drag you off Angel Island on some new hare-brained scheme?"

"No." Knuckles sat down on a fallen statue and Rouge seated herself on another. "Actually I'm looking for a Chaos."

"You've lost it again!?" She leapt to her feet. He'd never seen Rouge actually look frightened before. Then she hesitated, "Wait, _**a**_ Chaos? How many are there?"

He waved her back to the statue and she sat down slowly. "Apparently there are three, one for each tribe of power stones."

"Power– ? You mean those meteorite things had a Chaos of their own? I thought it was a robot."

"Um." Actually, that hadn't occurred to him. But there were supposed to be seven, and there had only been five of the Arks of the Cosmos. "I think they're the Time Stones, actually, and the Chaos and maybe the Sol Emeralds. But these Chaos don't look like the one from the Master Emerald." He described the carvings as well as he could. "Have you heard about anything like either of those?"

The white bat considered. Eventually she shook her head. "I dunno. The rabbity-looking one, never heard of anything like that. But the other . . . that one rings a few bells. I could look it up when I get home . . . ."her voice trailed off suggestively. Generally, Rouge being suggestive would make Knuckles dissolve with embarrassment, but this time she was being mercenary, not seductive. Knuckles knew exactly what she was after - and actually had an answer.

"I'd really appreciate it," he said, producing the necklace he'd found with the air of a conjuror. "And for your trouble, please accept this as a retainer."

Rouge who'd been lounging as usual, sat up straight. "Wow," she said softly. She took the necklace and ran it slowly through her fingers. "Where did you find this? It's gorgeous."

"Out there, near the chalice with the eared bird on it."

"Gryphon," said Rouge absently, still examining the necklace.

"What?"

"Gryphon," she repeated. "The eared bird is a gryphon."

"What's a gryphon?" Knuckles had never heard the term before.

Rouge looked up from her prize, curiously. "It's a mythical beast: half eagle, half lion. They're usually depicted as having eagle heads with feather tufts where ears would be on an animal."

Knuckles remembered the inscriptions from the mosaic room. "'The feathered ones sent an emissary . . . that was neither bird nor beast'," he murmured.

"Hmm? What did you say?" Rouge continued, "Actually there's a picture of one in the side cavern over there."

"Where?" Knuckles looked where she was waving, but there were several branches off the main cavern in that direction.

"This way." The bat tucked the necklace into a pouch on her hip, and led him into the correct cavern. "That's a gryphon, holding Babylon Gardens."

Outside, the sun and rain over the centuries had removed most of the paint from the carved relief behind the chalice altar, and what little was left was badly faded. Here, the combination of sculpture and paint leant an uncanny feel of life to the image. The gryphon's head was dark bronze, each feather outlined in gold, with crimson tassels streaming from the ear tufts. The creature was posed upright on its haunches, tawny with brown spots (and clearly furred rather than feathered) holding two hawk-like front feet cupped around the image of the Gardens. The dark head and half-furled wings were bowed protectively around the floating island. Two of the eagle-headed ancient Babylonians flanked the beast, each half the creature's size and kneeling with head bowed. Behind the one on the left stood a shorter, dokan-proportioned figure, hawk-headed like Jet, but possessing wings as well as arms, and a tufted tail. It wore a white kilt belted around the waist and was painted a uniform grey; the belt itself was covered with gold-leaf. On the opposite side of the mural . . . was a white creature the same height as the dokan with trailing ears and enormous blue eyes. The ears and hands were tipped with shell-pink. The gold-leaf halo above its head merely confirmed that it was the missing 'air' Chaos; the shape was the same as that of the carving on Angel Island.

Rouge stepped closer, shining a small, but powerful flashlight on the white Chaos. "What is that thing? I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before."

"That's the air Chaos, I think," said Knuckles. "At least, in the mural in Marble Gardens, this one was matched with a puff of air, as Chaos - the one that tried to drown Station Square - was matched with water and the other was matched with a flame."

"Well, I suppose it makes sense," Rouge said slowly, "Chaos of the air along with people that lived in the air. But how could there be a picture of it on Angel Island?"

Knuckles explained about the inscriptions in the echidna ruins. "The Great Hall is actually older than the pyramid; it's part of the original complex. So it records things from before Pachacmac coming to power, and the visit of the feathered ones' emissary - which I guess was a gryphon from Babylon - and their Chaos is one of the things recorded. And that part of the complex actually is as old as the Marble Gardens ruins, even though the Perfect Chaos mosaic was added later."

"I'd like to see that. Perhaps I'll drop by later."

"There's not any treasure there," the echidna pointed out. "I removed it all."

"Well, perhaps you missed some. You don't object to a girl taking a look for herself, do you?"

"Not as long as the girl doesn't mind risking being burned, drowned or squashed. Although I suspect you can handle most of it." Actually, since Rouge could fly, she could bypass a number of the traps fairly easily. He wasn't too concerned about her safety, although he did have to quash the racial indignation over unworthy trespassers again. "Thanks for the information about the gryphon, Rouge. I'd better go see Wave now, before it gets too late."

Rouge pouted at him. He understood it was supposed to be a 'cute' expression, but it had never appealed to him, even on a chao. "Not very tactful, Red, telling a girl you're running out on her to go visit another one."

He called back as he left, "Lack of tact comes from growing up on isolated islands, too."

About an hour later, Knuckles pulled his gear (now in bike form) up in front of the address Tails had given him. It was a plain little house in a neighborhood of identical houses. A bike similar to his, but larger and yellow was leaning against the wall next to the door. _Great_, he thought. _Looks like Storm's here._ Grumbling under his breath, he towed his bike up the walk and leaned it against the wall on the opposite side of the door. Then he walked in.

Actually, he only had one foot inside when he remembered that down here one was supposed to knock before entering another's house. He rarely visited anyone other than Sonic or Tails, neither of whom particularly cared. Sonic tended to pop right in himself anyway, and Tails was used to it from Sonic's doing it. However it was not, perhaps, the best way to impress someone you were asking for help. The echidna's face was already changing color to match his fur as he started to back out again.

Too late. "What do you think you're doing here!?" bellowed a voice as a large hand grabbed him by the throat. He was hauled sideways and shoved back against the wall, where he found himself staring into the outraged face of Storm the Albatross. "I saw you, trying to sneak in - looking for something to steal! Well nobody steals from the Rogues, we steal from _them_!"

Knuckles growled, caught Storm's wrist for balance, and drove both feet into the feathered gut. The huge bird fell back with a grunt, and Knuckles managed to twist free. Rubbing his throat with one hand he jumped aside as the albatross charged him, leaving the grey bird to crash beak-first into the wall. As Storm turned with a snarl to face him again, Knuckles crouched, a growl of his own leaving his throat. _If that overgrown seagull wants to fight– _

WHANG! The lights flickered and stars suddenly burst in front of the echidna's eyes. He staggered sideways, trying to get clear - and get his head clear - as Storm charged him again. He got his vision again just in time to see a large wrench crash down on Storm's head as well. Whang! The albatross stumbled and fell full-length on the ground. Knuckles looked across his fallen foe into the outraged eyes of Wave the Swallow, who stood with her weapon of choice raised and ready.

"I suppose you have a good reason to just walk right in as if you own the place?" she asked coldly.

"Umm, I forgot I was supposed to knock?" answered Knuckles feebly.

Storm said something indistinct from the floor, then got up shaking his head. As he saw Knuckles again his feathers started to rouse, but Wave snapped something that Knuckles didn't catch, but which slicked the grey Rogue's plumage right back down. Storm rumbled and stomped unsteadily across to a chair. He continued to glower at the echidna as he seated himself. Wave's glare wasn't any friendlier.

Knuckles swallowed, figuring that he'd just blown his chance of getting help with that stupid mistake. But he plunged ahead anyway. "I'm looking for the Chaos of Air, and the ancient texts said it belonged to the feathered ones' god and there's a picture of it at Gigan Ruins," he rushed the words out as fast as he could, not giving Wave or Storm a chance to interrupt. "I think it's white and looks sort of like a rabbit with a halo."

Wave blinked and her frown deepened, shifting from angry to thoughtful. Storm began to laugh. In fact the albatross was thumping an arm on the back of his chair and laughing so hard he nearly fell out of it.

"The Angel?" he wheezed. "You're looking," he gasped for breath, "you're looking for the Angel? Nobody believes in that old myth." He rocked in his seat, still laughing.

Wave shifted her glare to the albatross, who didn't notice. His eyes were closed, although tears were starting to leak from them as he continued to howl with laughter. The swallow's sharp eyes returned to Knuckles. "I've seen it," she said quietly. "What do _you_ want it for?"

"Huh?" Storm sat up, suddenly sober. "You've– you can't have. It's not real!"

"Neither are the Shooting Stars!" she snapped at him. She returned her gaze to the echidna, narrowing her eyes. "I don't know about chaos in the air, unless that's some sort of silly name for a tornado or a hurricane. But I know about the Angel, and no one who isn't a child of Babylon should know anything about it. How did you find out?"


	9. Marahuté

8. Marahuté

Knuckles eyed the two-foot-long wrench that Wave was tapping slowly in one palm and swallowed. "I was told that I needed to find the other two Chaos, so that their King stones could be restored and recall their associated stone tribes to restore the balance." He knew the statement wouldn't make much sense to her, but hoped she'd be intrigued enough to listen further rather that walloping him again. Not that he minded fighting, normally, but he'd discovered with Rouge that fighting females was somehow more discomfiting than brawling with another guy. Not to mention that Wave swung a mean wrench, and had planted a bomb on Sonic's board back in the first World Grand Prix. He suspected she'd be a dirty fighter if it came to blows. "Chaos, on Angel Island, is a water-based nature spirit that guards the Master Emerald, which in turn controls the Chaos Emeralds," he explained. "After I was told to find the others, I found references in the old echidnan ruins to the feathered ones and their god's chao; there is also a picture in the Gigan ruins that matches a carving on Angel Island of what I think is one of the missing Chaoses."

The wrench lay still, but the expression grew no friendlier. "You were told, you say. By whom?"

_Uh oh. The question I really didn't want to answer._ "By an ancient warrior in a dream," he answered. It sounded dumb even to him.

Storm snorted. Wave flicked the grey bird a glance, then cocked an eyebrow at Knuckles. "You seriously expect me to believe you're running out here because an old guy in a dream said you had to get the King of Rocks?"

"The King stones," corrected Knuckles automatically. He shrugged and admitted, "Seriously? No, I don't really expect you to believe me. But I happen to have guarded one of the King stones every day of my life that I can recall, and I know what it can do. And if it weren't for the 'old guy in a dream', I wouldn't be able to talk. Chao don't, and they were who raised me."

The albatross was practically strangling at this point, trying to smother his laughter. Wave regarded Knuckles skeptically, then with a low growl, turned to the larger Rogue. "Storm, go for a walk or something," she snapped. "You," she stabbed a finger at Knuckles, "come with me." She stalked through a doorway, deeper into the house.

Storm grumbled, but got up and went out the front door. Knuckles followed the swallow doubtfully into the next room. It turned out to be a workroom, and looked pretty much like Tails'. Wires, chips and metal parts were scattered around, many holding down papers covered in sketches or calculations. Several hoverboards in varying stages of assembly lay on various desks and tables. Wave flipped a long head-feather back over her shoulder and muttered to herself as she pulled open a file cabinet. After a few moments' rummage, she stepped over to the table closest to Knuckles and tossed a small stack of photos onto it. She said nothing, merely gave him a challenging glare.

Knuckles hesitated a moment, then picked up the pictures. The first riffle through revealed them to be closeups of various murals and carvings; some he recognized from Gigan Rocks, others matched the style he'd seen in Babylon Gardens. There was a third style that he didn't recognize. _Clearly this is some sort of test. But what am I supposed to do? _He looked at the top picture again, this time scrutinizing it carefully. This one he did recognize, it was the mural from behind the chalice altar. "The Divine Wing," he murmured softly, and set it on the table. The next was also a representation of the Gardens, apparently from a wall in the Gardens itself. Knuckles considered a moment, then put it next to the first, deciding to sort them by location rather than subject. The next four were gryphons, one the enormous statue in Gigan Rocks, one the mural Rouge had shown him (although focused on the gryphon, so that the other beings were not visible), two were the style he did not recognize. He added the former two to the Gigan stack and put the latter pair into a third pile. The next several, in all three styles, were of the hawk-headed and winged dokan; oddly, none were from the gryphon's mural. There were several ancient Babylonians, several modern Babylonians, and three that startled him momentarily - until he realized they actually were dokan rabbits. The key photo - or at least the one he guessed was the key - was in the middle of those. He held on to that one until he had finished examining the last rabbit, then turned the air Chaos picture towards Wave. "This is what I'm looking for," he said simply. "Can you help me find it?"

Wave tugged lightly at one head-feather as she considered. Knuckles added, "I don't want to hurt it, just talk to it. If it can show me where to find the King stone for the Time Stones, that's–" he broke off as she gaped at him. "Did I say something wrong?"

Wave blinked. "What? Oh . . . no, it's just . . . ." Her voice trailed off as she looked again at the photo he had chosen. It was a different sculpt of the Chaos than the one he'd seen, not painted, and (the clincher, as it were) with an adult and infant 'white' chao at its feet. Finally the purple swallow sighed. "Okay," she said, "I'll take you as far as the gryphons."

_The gryphons?_ Knuckles wasn't sure if that was good or bad. The ones in the artwork had a variety of sizes but he had the impression that all would be rather significantly larger than he. _Not that I haven't dealt with things bigger than me before - most of Eggman's mechs, for starters - but . . . can they talk?_ He'd had the impression for some reason that they were animals. He realized Wave had asked him a question. "Sorry?"

"I said, did you bring your gear with you? Or did you," she pronounced the final word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth, "walk?"

"Oh. No, my gear's outside. Unless Storm did something to it."

"I doubt it. He's not usually one for getting his own ideas. Now if Jet had been here, I'd advise you not to touch it at this point, but Storm's practically superstitious about the gears anyway. He'd probably refuse to damage one even if Jet did tell him too." Wave glanced at a mirror in the entry way and adjusted her head scarf. I'll meet you out front," she said as she picked up her glasses from the table and left through a different door.

Knuckles walked out the front door as directed and looked over his bike. _It looks okay to me. Probably better have Tails check it out afterwards anyway, to be safe. _He looked up as Wave came around the corner with her own board tucked under her arm. "May I ask where we're going?" he asked politely.

She looked amused. "The old guy in your dream taught you well. I can't even get Jet to ask 'May I'. Unfortunately, while you may ask, _I'm _not allowed to tell. I'll probably be in enough trouble for taking you there. Oh, you'll have to be blindfolded for part of the way. If that's going to be a problem we can forget the whole thing right now." She looked as if she half hoped he'd call it off.

Unfortunately, the 'old guy in his dream' hadn't left him much choice. "I can't say I like the idea, but," he shrugged, "if that's the condition, I suppose I'll have to put up with it." He converted the bike back into hoverboard mode and stepped on as she tossed hers to the ground and lightly jumped up. She rocketed away like she was born to fly on the thing, which in fact she was, leaving the echidna to do his best to keep up.

Knuckles wasn't sure how he did keep up; he thought he'd lost her several times, so when she looked back halfway up a mountain and seemed surprised to see him, he was almost as surprised as she was. She motioned for him to pull up next to her and stepped off her board. As he landed next to her, she pulled off the scarf that usually covered her head feathers. Flipping it around several times to fold it into the proper shape, she stepped behind him and dropped it over his eyes before he could protest. Then silently she handed him his own board and guided him up onto hers, getting on behind him. Although Knuckles had an excellent sense of direction on Angel Island, the lack of Master Emerald resonance meant he was soon completely lost as the board he stood on tipped up, down, left, and right. He suspected that some of the turns were made to throw him off, but couldn't see a thing through the blindfold.

Suddenly there was a harsh shrieking noise and the board stopped. Wave's hands caught Knuckles' as he instinctively reached for the blindfold. She said something in a language he didn't know; it sounded like whatever she and Storm had been speaking back at the house.

Another voice replied brusquely. Wave snapped back at them, but her hands tightened on Knuckles' wrists with what felt more like nerves than anger. After nearly five minutes of back and forth, her grip suddenly relaxed, and the other voice said something that sounded like the speaker was grudgingly giving in. Wave replied as confidently as she had challenged Knuckles earlier in the day, and pulled off the blindfold.

"So," she added, this time speaking a language that Knuckles did understand, "call us a guide, and we'll be out of your crest-feathers."

Knuckles had to blink several times before his eyes focused properly and then he stared at their challenger. It was a dokan, but no species that he'd ever seen before. The white hawk head, with ice-blue eyes and pale yellow beak was surmounted by a pair of ear tufts that were currently folded mostly down. The feathers continued down an unusually long neck to form a V on the chest. The body was covered in dense, dark brown fur, except that the tail, which was lashing behind like an angry cat's, ended in a fan of white feathers that spread and furled as it twitched. In the darkness, it took Knuckles a moment to notice the other's wings; quivering slightly, they bore feathers that appeared the same dark brown as the fur. Except for Rouge, Knuckles had never seen another mammalian dokan with wings, and even the birds he had seen - like the Rogues - had essentially traded wings for arms. But this one, like the bat, had wings and arms both. A pair of gloves covered his hands, of course, some sort of leather tooled to resemble the scaly feet of birds, both they and the matching boots were as pale as the guard's beak. For guard he obviously was; the instant he'd called over his shoulder he'd returned his gaze to Wave and Knuckles, and the spear gripped by those pale gloves was held with an air of much familiarity.

The sound of running feet could be heard, and another of the gryphon dokan popped out of a tunnel mouth. Knuckles had been so bemused by the guard that he'd barely noticed what was being guarded. Lights deep within suggested some sort of occupancy. The new arrival made a rather elaborate bow to Wave and gave what sounded - even in another language - like a formal greeting. The swallow, who had been replacing and adjusting her head scarf, nodded and gave a crisp answer, changing language mid-sentence, ". . . and Knuckles the Echidna, here, doesn't speak our language. So let's be polite, shall we?" She strode past the guard and the greeter, heading on into the tunnel. Knuckles followed a bit more warily, eyeing the guard, who glowered at him but made no protest.

"Hello, Knuckles," said the greeter carefully, as he fell into step beside the echidna. "My name is Kestrel. How do you do?"

"I am fine, Kestrel. How are you?" answered Knuckles. He couldn't help himself, the gryphon's words were so careful and textbook precise.

"I am fine, too, thank you," was the reply. And then the other seemed rather at a loss, as if the lesson had ended at that exchange of pleasantries.

As they moved into the lit part of the tunnel, Knuckles took a good look at their guide. While the guard outside had been a fairly simple bicolor (as far as the twilight had shown), Kestrel was as intricately patterned as the bird he was named after. His head and the backs of his wings were a deep blue-grey, liberally spattered with black. His back and shoulders were a rich brown, also speckled in black. The underside of the wings was a sharply contrasted pale buff with tan markings. Amber eyes were framed by a black mask above a darker gold beak. The furred portion of his body resembled a leopard, black rosettes on gold, shading to white with black 'buttons' on the chest and abdomen. The feathers at the end of his tail were chestnut above and buff below, but banded rather than spotted. Kestrel wore smooth chestnut-colored gloves and matching shoes. He was looking Knuckles over as intently as the echidna was regarding him.

"Why do you looking for the Angel?" he asked finally, speaking slowly.

"Why– Oh. I _am_ looking for the Angel because I am the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and I need to find the . . ." here, Knuckles had a problem, because he wasn't sure what the stones he needed were called, "uh, the King stone that the Angel used to guard." He stopped, because Kestrel had stopped dead in the passageway. The gryphon skipped hurriedly forward a few steps to catch up to him.

"You are looking for the . . ." The gryphon shook his head and whistled something sharply to Wave, who was in front of them.

The swallow turned around, walking backwards while she thought. Finally she said, "Chronos Rock."

"Yes," said Kestrel, "you are looking for the Chronos Rock?"

Knuckles had never heard of a Chronos Rock, but it sounded like a reasonable candidate for kingship of the Time Stones. "Yes," he said cautiously. "Is that a problem?"

Kestrel tipped his head to one side. "I do not know. But the Chronos Rock . . . vanished? . . . many, many years ago." He said something else to Wave, and repeated her answer. "Centuries ago. I think I will take you to Mara."

"Okay." A vanished rock sounded right. Knuckles didn't know who 'Mara' was, but he was willing to talk to anyone who might be able to help him.

They came out of the tunnel into an immense cavern. The top was lost in darkness, but the village that filled the floor space was well-lit. Other lights revealed that the building continued right up the walls for at least several stories. In addition to the figures moving between the buildings - there was nothing that could really be called a 'street', the buildings were laid out too haphazardly for that - there were others flying through the air, either a-wing or on hover gear. Knuckles realized that many of the inhabitants were birds, though there were still plenty of gryphons, and that the gryphon dokan came in a bewildering variety of colors and patterns.

_This must be what Hydrocity used to look like, except for the building style. _The style here was similar to the Gigan ruins, although it had apparently evolved over the centuries and the predominant colors in the village at least were blue and green rather than Gigan's red and gold. He wasn't given much time to look around; Kestrel led the little group rapidly around the fringes of the village towards the left-hand wall.

_Oh, wow. That's like the sculpture in Gigan Rocks. _Carved out of the wall of the cavern was a massive gryphon head, beak gaping, with lights in the eye sockets. The tongue formed a ramp up to the dark hollow of the throat. Kestrel marched up the ramp and pushed aside a curtain at the back of the throat, revealing a small chamber that had 'waiting room' written all over it. At the gryphon's direction, Wave and Knuckles seated themselves on the formal, uncomfortable wooden chairs while their guide spoke rapidly to the albatross behind the desk. She wasn't as huge as Storm, but she was still bigger than any dokan Knuckles knew except Big the Cat, and though she was a paler shade and more delicately marked than the Rogue, the red echidna suspected from her stance and motions that she could more than hold her own in a fight. _A guard of some sort I think... but a prison guard or an honor guard?_ After a moment the albatross pushed through another curtained doorway and Kestrel joined the two already seated.

Almost at once, however, the albatross returned and said . . . something. "She's offering us a chance to freshen up," said Wave. "Actually, she's ordering us to freshen up. You go with Kestrel." Knuckles welcomed the chance to use the facilities, and wash his face and hands. Once they regrouped, the albatross led them on through the scarlet curtain into a large audience hall. A tawny gold form sat at the far end between two dark statues. The albatross stepped aside and indicated that Knuckles and his companions should go on.

Knuckles stumped about halfway across the room, then stopped dead. The dark forms flanking the seated figure had suddenly snapped their heads up and were scrutinizing him with ice-blue eyes that looked far too pale in the dark faces. He resumed moving as Wave or Kestrel (probably Wave) jabbed him in the back, but he eyed the creatures warily.

Gryphons - real gryphons, not the dokan kind - were evidently lion-sized. This pair was remorselessly black, feathers and fur, with dark gold beaks and front feet, and standing, their shoulders would have been about as tall as Knuckles. Reclining as they were, their eyes were level with his. As he got closer, Knuckles saw that they weren't quite as black as he'd thought; the feathers of the left one gleamed with purple iridescence, and the right one displayed a muted bronze glow. The figure seated between them was also watching the guests approach. This one was a dokan, furred and feathered in an unmarked, uniform gold, wearing a white robe that belted at the waist. She wore sandals that laced up her legs, and instead of the usual gloves, she wore what Knuckles could only think of as 'hand-sandals' - leather pads across her palms that laced across the backs of her hands and up her forearms. Her eyes and beak were the same color as her fur and feathers. As he stopped in front of her chair - and out of reach of the alertly watching gryphons - he saw the white feathers around her beak and scattered across her head and wings, and realized she was older than he'd thought at first.

Kestrel stepped in front of Knuckles and bowed, graceful as a cat. Wave softly translated his intricate speech so Knuckles could understand it. "Lady Marahuté, Guardian of the Dancing Clouds, I bring the Guardian of the Waters, who wishes to speak to you."

The gold eyes flicked across the other gryphon and Wave, settling on Knuckles. "I greet the Guardian of the Waters," Marahuté said softly. Though accented, her knowledge of Knuckles' language was clearly far better than Kestrel's. "It has been long indeed since we saw an emissary from the echidnas. What brings you in search of the Dancing Clouds?"


	10. Featherless Angel

9. Featherless Angel

"Lady Marahuté," began Knuckles formally, as his mind raced. _What do I say now? 'Guardian of the Dancing Clouds'; does that mean she's my counterpart, who'd be keeping the Master Time Stone - what did they call it, the Chronos Rock?_ "I bring greetings from Angel Island," he said finally, "from the Master Emerald shrine, from which I have been sent to find the missing two King stones, and their tribes, and their Guardian Chaos. Seeking the air god's chao as mentioned in the heart of Mystic Ruins, I went to Gigan Rocks, which led me to Wave, who brought me here. I need to find the Chaos of air, whom I believe you call Angel, to tell me where the Chronos Rock can be found." He paused; the golden gryphon was shaking her head.

"I regret, honored Guardian, that we cannot help you. The Angel is here, yes, and I can introduce you to it, but the Chronos Rock was destroyed many centuries ago by the Babylonians themselves, when they sought to better control its powers and adapt them to their own ends."

Knuckles frowned. "It was my understanding, Lady, that the Angel would be able to repair the King stone, and use it to summon the rest of its tribe from wherever they hide. I, myself, have repaired the Master Emerald on two occasions when it has been shattered," - _we won't mention that I shattered it myself the second time_, - "and I thought that to be an inherent ability of the Guardian."

Marahuté tilted her head, regarding him intently. Evidently this was not an idea that had occurred to her before. "That . . . may be," she said slowly, "but to bring the remnants together is very risky. The Lightless Dark . . . ."

_Lightless Dark? Where have I heard that before? Oh, my. _"The Arks of the Cosmos are the parts of the Chronos Rock?!"

Wave, who had been standing aside looking bored, was suddenly as intent as Knuckles. "You're looking for the Arks? But they were lost after the battle with that dratted robot–"

"No," interrupted Marahuté quietly. "They were recovered, but we keep them separate and silent, so that they do not overdraw their power again. Why do you seek these King stones?" she turned on Knuckles suddenly. "They have lain vanquished and vanished these many long years, why do you seek them now?"

"Uh," was the echidna's eloquent answer. "Um." He took a deep breath, trying to remember what Uaxactun had told him. "Because a tribe came and went and another came and went and called, and these are supposed to call between worlds and unbalance things. Or we all vanish." He heard Wave snort, and wished miserably that he could remember exactly what the old echidna warrior _had_ said. Because honestly he rather agreed with the swallow; it sounded very stupid.

The gold eyes narrowed, studying him intently. Then the elder dokan levered herself up from her seat and stretched her wings. Immediately the black gryphons rose to their own four feet, looming over the visitors, though they kept their wings furled. Marahuté said something to Kestrel, then said to Knuckles, "Kestrel will take you to a place to sleep tonight, and tomorrow I shall take you to the Dancing Clouds. Goodnight, Guardian of the Waters." Thus dismissed, Knuckles and Wave were escorted out by the patterned gryphon and the watchful albatross.

It was a short trip through the cave to the accommodations that the golden Guardian had promised, and Knuckles was tired enough by now to burrow into the proffered bed without really looking around. He was asleep almost at once.

In the morning, Knuckles was awakened by bright light coming through the windows. Looking out, he discovered that the cave roof wasn't complete; a large crack zigzagged along the center, allowing plenty of indirect morning light into the cavern. Several small figures crossing or exiting through the gap indicated just how large it was. Kestrel greeted him when he left the bedroom and offered breakfast, meat broth over a sort of pancake. It was nothing that Knuckles would have thought of as breakfast, but it wasn't bad. Noting Wave's absence, he asked after the swallow.

"She has gone to her house," answered Kestrel in surprise. "She would not stay in a guest house when she has her own."

"Oh. I didn't know she lived here," countered the echidna. "I thought she lived on that blimp with Jet and Storm."

"No. The Rogues travel in the blimp but they have houses here. The leader of the Rogues could hardly be a wanderer."

Knuckles had rather thought that the Babylon Rogues _were_ wanderers, but chose to drop that topic. Instead he asked about the gryphons he'd seen the night before. "I was told that they were mythological. And how do you tell if you're talking about the four-legged gryphons or the dokan kind?"

"Ah. The gryphons are very rare now; the ones that are left live only here, in this cavern and two others. We breed them carefully to keep the lines healthy and only let them out to hunt. As to telling which is which, _we_," he waved a hand at himself, "are often called 'griffs', but mostly we just know what we are talking about. If you are feeding the cat, it is probably an animal; if you invite her for dinner, than she's likely to be dokan."

"True. So you're Kestrel the Griff, then? And Marahuté is the Guardian of the Dancing Clouds."

"She is the Guardian, yes. Although we usually call her 'Mara' – or 'Lady' in her presence." The other's beak parted in a grin, revealing very unavian teeth. "It is easier." The feather tuft on the left side of his head flicked like the ear it resembled and he turned to look at the door. "She is here. Are you ready to go?"

Knuckles gulped down the last two bits of pancake and hurriedly wiped his mouth. Kestrel had already gone to the door to greet the golden griff. Marahuté was wearing the same white robe, laced gloves, and sandals, but her belt today was gold, and she wore a wreath of flowers. In the daylight the white feathers flecking her face and wings were more visible, and Knuckles wondered just how old she was. The two black gryphons were there as well, and after greeting the echidna, she ordered him to mount one. It was probably a good thing that she turned immediately away, because Knuckles could only gape in shock. He eyed the black creature, and it returned the gaze with cool golden eyes. Kestrel tugged on Knuckles' arm and gave him a boost onto the back, with his legs hanging down in front of the black wings. Gulping nervously, Knuckles looked up to see Mara herself perched easily on the other black back. There's a neck strap under the feathers," she commented blandly. "I suggest you hold that. Nox can get a bit temperamental if his feathers get pulled."

"Oh," Knuckles fumbled for the strap. It was black, but lacked the purple iridescence of the feathers that hid it. He'd barely gotten hold when the gryphon jumped into the air.

Nox climbed rapidly over the village and up through the gap, following Mara's mount. Knuckles glanced back once, noted that Kestrel was following on his own wings, along with another griff, and then spotted the ground falling below him and decided not to look down again. Flying on the gryphon, with his seat heaving and dropping as the wings beat, was very different than gliding on his own or riding a hover board.

It was not a long flight, fortunately, and he had only time to ascertain that the mountains around him were completely unfamiliar before they descended towards a small forested valley. For a moment he thought that a swarm of tiny clouds actually was rising around them, then he realized they were white chao, a veritable flock of the creatures. _Guardian of the Dancing Clouds, hmm? I wonder if Tikal then was the actual Guardian of the chao, and Chaos guarded the Master Emerald, only the roles got switched in the disaster? Chaos went mad because the chao were killed and the echidnas ended up guarding the stone. Or perhaps it was always a sort of dual job, and a member from each species jointly guarded both chao and 'King stone'._

As the gryphons landed, Knuckles did see a very familiar green and yellow shape dive into the pond, but nearly all the chao flocking around them were the white air chao. No infants, and only a single toddler in its pale blue and yellow trim, but a rather overwhelming variety of adults. There didn't seem to be much correlation between the colors and the types of chao he was familiar with; flying chao, for instance, were generally purple-to-pink in color, and similarly, the air chao with the largest wings (golden) were white, marked with pale blue and purple. However, another purple-marked individual dove into the water after the normal water-type, so . . . . _I don't suppose it really matters. There are what, twenty-five types of adult chao, so probably the same is true here, and they all overlap. The question is, where is the Chaos?_

Mara had a brief discussion with the other griff, who appeared to be a guard. Knuckles couldn't understand them but she was clearly giving orders he objected to. Finally, the guard signaled to Kestrel and the black gryphons and all four flew off.

"I sent them to wait on the mountain," the golden Guardian explained. "The Angel does not often appear to strangers - I am not certain that Lord Jet has even seen it - so it will be easier to call if there are fewer present."

_**Lord**__ Jet? _Knuckles stopped himself from saying it out loud; it didn't matter at the moment. "Wave told me that she had seen it," he commented. "What do you want me to do, hide behind a tree while you call it?"

She gave him an amused look. "Can you call your . . . Chaos, I think you called it?"

"I can call it. But," he admitted with some chagrin, "it only answers when it wants to. Tikal can call it fairly consistently though."

"Who is Tikal?" She listened to his explanation then waved him towards a heap of boulders under a squarefruit tree. Seating herself on a boulder she waited for him to do the same, then continued, "Tell me of your people, Guardian, and the water god's chao. Perhaps that will draw the Angel out of hiding."

So, Knuckles dutifully told the whole story, of Pachacamac's rise to power and excessive greed, of the attack on the Emerald shrine and the chao that lived around it; of Chaos' rampage and sealing. The next part was a bit uncertain: "I know they put the extra eggs in a cave, and the chao use it to store eggs over the winter, I think. And Uaxactun told me that the Guardians would take out an egg when they got old - the Guardians got old, I mean, not the eggs - but there aren't any left. I was raised by the chao, and the dreams that the Master Emerald sent me. I'm not really sure if they're ghosts, like Tikal, or what."

"They are reflections." He blinked in surprise at the certainty in her voice. "The cave . . . I do not know how yours was formed, but we have one here that was created by the Chronos Rock. There is no time inside, so anything stored there stays unchanged until it is taken out again. I doubt even echidna eggs could survive centuries and still be hatchable without being time-locked. The Chronos Rock also had the ability to pull beings backwards or forwards in time, in which case you would have been talking _to_ this Uaxactun. But water can only reflect, exactly as things are if the water is still, or greatly distorted if it is not. So the Master Emerald can show you reflections of what is or was, or how a certain person would have reacted in a given situation, but it is not the real person or thing, any more than the greedy dog could catch the bone in the water in the old fable."

Knuckles suddenly remembered the shadow opponents he sparred with; opponents that fought exactly like the real people they resembled. "Reflections," he agreed. "So anyway, the eggs were preserved in the cave and Uaxactun became the first Guardian - oh," he interrupted himself, "that's how the Master Emerald knew him so well, and why he was my primary teacher." He frowned suddenly; there was a strange sort of feeling in the air, not a chill exactly, but...

"Most likely," nodded Mara. "So the Guardianship was passed down one to another until you got it . . . ." she urged.

Knuckles realized she wanted him to ignore the . . . whatever-it-was. So he continued the story of Doctor Eggman's crashing of the Death Egg onto Angel Island, and the arrival of Sonic and Tails, and the whole humiliating sequence that followed while he battled with them in the belief that Eggman was in the right, and the hedgehog and fox were the thieves. Then he skipped on to the return of Chaos, Eggman's decoying him away from the Master Emerald long enough to smash it, and the attack on Station Square, culminating in Sonic's using his Super form to knock Chaos out of its insane rage, and its realization that the chao were not dead, but thriving in their special gardens, followed by its return to Angel Island to guard both the Master Emerald and the chao.

As he got to the end, the strange feeling grew stronger, and there was a strange disturbance in the air in front of them, like steam evaporating but in reverse. And then, there it was. The Angel. The air god's chao, the Chaos of Air. The strange feeling faded but lingered, seeming to emanate from the creature like the chill off a block of ice. Knuckles hadn't really thought about it before, but abruptly he realized that Chaos had a similar effect, although in that case it was a slight increase in humidity. _Is this the feeling of time, then? _he wondered.

"Angel," said Marahute, rising to her feet and bowing slightly to the creature. She pulled a flower from the wreath she wore and offered it, saying, "This is Knuckles the Echidna, Guardian of the Waters. He has a question to ask of you."

A pink hand reached out and took the blossom. The huge blue eyes looked at the Lady, at Knuckles, and then down at the yellow daisy. Then the Angel folded the flower in its hand, hiding it completely, and offered its hand to the echidna. Knuckles put out his own hand, and received a sprouted seed. He blinked at it, then glanced over at the other Guardian. "This means yes?" he guessed.

Mara nodded. "A 'no' would have left you holding a dead flower."

"Hmm." Knuckles studied the creature, working out his next move. As with Chaos, Angel was much larger than a usual chao, its blue eyes on a level with Knuckles' violet ones. The markings on its feet were the same pink as its hands, but the belly was marked with peach. It was opaque, or perhaps translucent, like a cloud, in contrast to Chaos' transparent, uniformly blueish body. It also possessed a pair of long, fluted ears that gave it its rabbit-like appearance, white shading to pink at the tips. Like Chaos, it was wingless, and it had a golden halo hovering over its head in place of the normal chao bobble.

Knuckles took a deep breath and plunged in. "I was sent by the Master Emerald, the King stone of the Chaos Emeralds, to recover or recall the other two King stones and their tribes. I am told that the Chronos Rock, which rules the Time Stones, was shattered into the Arks of the Cosmos, but they cannot be brought together or they will call the Lightless Dark to destroy everything." He paused, trying futilely to gauge the effect of his words on the expressionless being. It merely blinked at him. _Now what do I do? _"Um, do you know how to rejoin the Arks without calling the Lightless Dark?" He wanted to kick himself. _How is it supposed to answer THAT? Even if it knows how it can't tell me!_

The Angel blinked again, then stepped back several paces. Extending its arms and its ears it gave the appearance of intense concentration . . . and the Rock appeared. It looked like a rock - a chunk of polished granite, with no sign of the crystalline appearance common to the Chaos, Master, or Sol Emeralds. Fossils appeared to be embedded in its surface, but Knuckles found he couldn't get any nearer to the Rock, to get a better look; the odd aura that surrounded Angel also surrounded the Chronos Rock, but far more pronounced.

"That_ is_ the Chronos Rock, Knuckles," whispered Mara beside him. "It's calling it up through time to show us!"

It was the echidna's turn to blink. _Is that time then, that it's giving off? I hope it's not aging me as I stand here. But why is it showing us this? _He opened his mouth to ask just that, but before he could the rock started to glow. Angel tilted it and the light it was emitting somehow shifted. Knuckles couldn't imagine how the creature was creating the effect, but he could suddenly see the power going into the stone. _("Gravity is really just an effect on space, Tails had explained. "When you move the Ark through space, it stores the energy of the motion and can then use it to affect space.")_ He could also see that the power was flowing back out, channeling off somehow. _That makes sense_, he realized suddenly. _The Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald both take in power, life energy and emotions, and spill the excess out, unless we channel it for something else. _Sonic and Shadow of course could call up their Super forms. He'd actually done that himself once. But usually . . . . _Where does it go? The Chaos Emeralds just dump it into those dimensional pockets they hide in, I think, but the Master– Oh, of course, it supports Angel Island! Not just the floating, but the temperature controls and everything else, like the pressure and oxygen gradients that Tails was so concerned about. And the lava at the core, it must keep that hot too._ It was rather awesome, even for him. He'd known all his life that the Master Emerald had enormous power and kept the island flying, but somehow it had never quite hit him just **how much **power that actually entailed. _Wow. Now what's happening?_

Something, from outside the vision of the Chronos Rock, had suddenly struck it. A large crack appeared along the base, and suddenly the energy outflow ceased, although power was still flowing into the Rock. Whatever it was struck it again, and a third time, and suddenly the stone fractured into five parts. They were unshaped and undecorated, but they were clearly the Arks of the Cosmos. Still the power could be seen flowing in, but not leaving. And suddenly they were gone, as the Angel lowered its hands and ears, looking quizzically between Knuckles and Marahuté.

"I see," murmured the echidna, "when the Rock was broken, it lost the ability to bleed off excess energy. But if it were restored it could drain it again?" The air Chaos nodded, then beckoned. Leading the two dokan, it moved through the valley - which was really just an enormous chao garden, Knuckles realized - until they came to a simple, thatched roof supported by 7 massive posts. Each post was a single, huge log with a niche carved into the side facing the center of the building. In the center was a stump about two feet high and three feet across, that had had the top hollowed out. Knuckles recognized the space immediately as a socket that would fit the Master Emerald. "This is the Chronos shrine." He looked at the posts. "The Time Stones go in there?"

Angel nodded. Then it pointed a pink finger at Knuckles, and at Mara, and mimed bringing something and putting it in the bowl of the altar. Knuckles looked at the golden griff. "I need the Arks. You said they'd been recovered?"

"Yes." She seemed to be thinking hard. Then she shook her head slightly. "I will order them brought back when we return to the village. It will probably be tomorrow before we can get them all and bring them back here."

Knuckles nodded. "That's fine. I get the impression that the danger isn't immediate, just growing. Tomorrow should be fine but next year might not be."

She gave him a faint smile. "I do not think next year will be necessary. Shall we go on then?"

Knuckles stepped back and bowed, courteously indicating that she should precede him. As they arrived back at the landing site, she pulled a thong with a shiny stone from where it had been looped to her belt. Swinging it around her head caused the stone to flash brilliantly in the sunlight, and shortly their escort reappeared. This time Knuckles managed to get up on Nox himself, and they returned in good order to the guest house. Lady Mara bid him good day and granted him free roam of the village if he desired, as long as he kept Kestrel with him. Knuckles opted instead to sit in the main room of the guest house and consider the day's revelations._ And more to come tomorrow, no doubt._


	11. The Arks of the Cosmos

10. The Arks of the Cosmos

Knuckles yawned and stretched, enjoying the feel of a mattress that was undeniably softer than his harvested giant mushroom caps. Getting out of bed, he pulled the blankets approximately straight and looked at the little heap of clothing on the top of the dresser. Kestrel had gone out the evening before and returned with some changes of gloves and socks; the latter especially were a welcome sight. Sorting through the socks to find some approximately then right size was simple enough, but the gloves were a bit more difficult. None were the boxing style that Knuckles preferred, and perhaps more importantly, none were designed to accommodate his trademark knuckle spurs. With a slight grimace he pulled off his own - which were decidedly dirty at this point, and started comparing his hands to the offering. _Most of these birds have skinnier fingers than I do anyway. Hmm, this pair looks close. _He pulled them on, pleased to find they were stretchier than he had thought. The fingers were okay - although it felt decidedly peculiar to have a tube of fabric on each individual digit - but the claw-like spurs on his knuckles strained the fabric. The wrists were also looser than he preferred. _Oh well. I'll wash mine and hope they dry before I damage this pair. I have to wear something, anyway. Oh great. NOW , I start shedding._ A heavy dusting of scarlet hairs clung to the inside of the gloves as he pulled them off. He took the selected pairs of gloves and socks, and his own, and headed for the bathroom. There was a hair trap in the shower, at least. _Come to think of it, the griffs have fur as well as feathers. I'll bet feathers don't clog drains. _He remembered the first time he'd run into the problem. He'd been visiting Sonic for a few days after one of the adventures; the hedgehog hadn't seemed quite himself but Tails hadn't dared challenge him when he brushed them off, so Knuckles had simply invited himself to be Sonic's houseguest. The fact that Sonic had let him get away with such audacity was proof enough that something was wrong. Unfortunately, Knuckles had managed to clog the tub drain with his fur, which_ had_ stirred the hedgehog up, but not been quite what the echidna had planned. The pools on Angel Island, of course, had no such problems. 

This time he knew better, and dropped the hair trap over the drain before turning on the water. Then he scrubbed himself with vigor, watching the water turn almost blood-like from the amount of red hairs sluicing into it. He had to scrape the hairs out of the trap three times before he was done. Then he gave his dirty socks and gloves a quick scrub and rinse, and hung them next to the towel - which was now also liberally sprinkled with red hair - before pulling on the borrowed gloves and socks. After putting on his shoes as well, he wandered out to see if breakfast had arrived.

It had, and Kestrel was halfway through a plate of the broth-covered pancakes. The echidna was surprised though to see Wave, leaning back and sipping tea. Knuckles joined them at the table and helped himself to the food. "Good morning, Kestrel, Wave. I hadn't expected to see you this morning," he added, speaking to the swallow. 

"I hadn't actually planned to be here," she admitted. "But, I heard that you're collecting the Arks to merge them, and I would like to see that."

Knuckles paused in his eating and frowned at her. He got the distinct impression that there was more to her presence than that. "And?" he inquired, around a mouthful of cake.

Wave's expression suggested distaste at his table manners. She looked away and sighed, then continued, "I also have a feeling that there's going to be trouble, if you must know. But I don't know what."

Knuckles took a few more bites while he considered this and took care to swallow before asking, "You think the Chronos Rock won't be stable? Angel says that repairing it will prevent the Lightless Black from forming."

"It's not that," she said, but didn't explain further.

A knock on the door proved to be Marahuté's albatross guard, summoning them to the Lady's presence. As they walked towards the Gryphon Hall, Knuckles muttered to Wave, "She not only _looks_ like Storm, she walks like him, too."

Wave gave him a slightly surprised look, and said, "Well, she _is_ his cousin." Seeing Knuckles' shocked reaction, she explained, "Because of their size and strength, the albatrosses are traditionally the bodyguards for the rulers of the Babylonians and the griffs. That's why Storm follows Jet, in spite of their age difference. He's about as bright as a post, but it's his right and he's as loyal as anyone could ask for. Which is all Jet really cares about, is someone who'll do what they're told and tell him how wonderful he is." She scowled at the ground. "I wish he'd grow up," she muttered, presumably to herself.

Knuckles wanted to ask why she followed Jet, if he was so annoying, but controlled himself. It wasn't really his business anyway. And on second thought, there was probably more scope for her tinkering and building hover gear out on the road (or in the skies) with Jet than if she stayed in the cavern. Which brought up another question. "Are all the Babylonians, or their descendants, here? Or are there other caves around the mountains?"

The swallow gave him a thoughtful look. She glanced up at the stone beak as they reached the ramp to Gryphon Hall and started up it, then said, "Babylon was destroyed even longer ago than your Echidnan Empire. Most of our people were able to flee, because of our technology, even as the griffs were able to escape by flying. They were a sister race, of sorts. They - the ones with actual wings! - lived on the ground, ironically; while we, who had lost the ability to fly under our own power, lived in the flying Babylon Gardens and traveled by various artificial flying devices. But one of the robots ran amok, and subsequently the feathered god's anger, or a natural disaster, or whatever it truly was, left both civilizations shattered and Babylon itself crashed and buried. Some of us left the desert and mostly lost our technology and blended into the local cultures. The reigning families of both cities fled to the mountains and yes, there are several caverns, where we hid to wait out the disaster and preserved at least some of out knowledge and devices. Jet is the last of the current ruling family of the Babylon remnant, and Lady Marahuté is the current ruler of the griffs, although _not_ the last of her line."

They had entered the hall as she spoke, and now she bowed to the Lady in her chair. Nox and his bronze-gleaming cohort were in their places flanking her, and a quartet of other dokan stood a 'safe' distance away, each with a large case in front of them. An additional albatross, that Knuckles had not seen before, stood on one side of the doorway, and Storm's cousin took up a post opposite him. Knuckles moved up the hall and bowed to the Lady but wasn't sure what to do next. Kestrel was looking curiously at the boxes. Wave simply marched over and opened one. Knuckles heard the soft sound she made in her throat as she lifted out one of the Arks, a short, hollow cylinder of polished granite, that could be worn like an oversized bracelet. The outer surface was carved and tinted green between plain borders, and he knew that it could store energy by merely moving through space and be made to release a burst of gravity at the command of its bearer. It was a remarkably innocuous-looking item, considering how incredibly dangerous it was. He was rather surprised to see Wave put it back in the case, with a brief pat, but she rose in his estimation for doing so; he'd rather expected her to object to the plan to essentially destroy the Arks by restoring the Chronos Rock.

As Wave reluctantly rejoined Knuckles and Kestrel, the echidna felt a surge of the same odd feeling he'd felt the day before, prior to Angel's appearing. Wave, Kestrel, and in fact everyone but the Lady were looking around wildly, several hugging themselves against a chill that wasn't actually temperature-related. The Guardian of the Dancing Clouds had her golden gaze fixed on a particular spot, and Knuckles followed her stare, just in time to see Angel do its reverse-evaporation thing again and appear right in Gryphon Hall. 

The result was an explosion of half-smothered to fully shouted exclamations. Two of the people standing by the cases actually turned and ran from the hall. The two guards had both jumped forward, one taking up a position between the cases and the air Chaos, the other planting himself between the new arrival and Lady Marahuté. Knuckles clenched his fists, ready to defend either the bystanders or the Angel if a fight broke out. A tearing sound indicated that his spikes had won out over the gloves' fabric. Wave, beside him, merely gave a gasp of wonder and stared at the Angel in delight. Kestrel bristled, rousing his feathers, and edged into line with the guard between the Lady's chair and the Angel. The black gryphons had reared onto their haunches momentarily, and now sat in taut readiness, wings half-spread. Only the Lady herself seemed entirely unmoved and undisturbed. 

Her voice rang out clearly over the chaos, speaking the language Knuckles didn't understand, but it calmed the remaining two dokan who had brought the Arks, and caused the guards and Kestrel to slick their feathers back down. They relaxed slightly but remained watchful; Knuckles did the same, now that a fight seemed less imminent. The gryphons also relaxed and smoothed their hackles, but remained seated instead of returning to their reclining poses. The Lady changed languages mid-speech, "I would ask you also, Guardian of the Waters, not to start any violence in this Hall. The Angel has merely come to remake the Rock, as we had decided yesterday. It is no threat to anyone in this room unless it is attacked first."

Knuckles already knew that, of course, but he figured she was translating the reassurance she'd given the others, to reinforce it for those who understood both languages_. I didn't realize it was coming here, though. I assumed we'd be taking the Arks to that shrine it showed us – wait. _"Wave," he whispered, "aren't there supposed to be five Arks of the Cosmos? We've only got four boxes."

The swallow blinked and looked away from the Chaos for the first time since its arrival. "Yes, there should," she whispered back, "and I don't think they'd put more than one in a box, the point is to keep them separated." Looking over at the golden griff, she asked, "Lady Marahuté, aren't we missing an Ark?"

"It is on its way," answered the Lady. She frowned as she looked at the door to the Hall. "I had expected it to be here by now, actually." She rose from her seat and came down to join them, churring a slight laugh as the guard and Kestrel made motions to block her. "Would you guard the Guardian from her own charge?" she asked. "Typhoon, Gale, return to your stations please. You,"she nodded to the keepers of the Arks, "may go if you wish." One of the two edged away until he felt he had enough distance between him and Angel to walk away from it and out the curtained arch, the other backed up to the wall, but made no move to leave. Mara nodded her approval. 

The guards had not quite reached their posts when there was a commotion in the next room. Suddenly two familiar forms burst through the curtain on hoverboards, dodging past the guards and coming to a hover ten feet off the floor. "Jet?! Storm!" shouted Wave, who had recognized them even faster than Knuckles. She sounded completely appalled. "_What_ do you think you're **doing**!?"

"Wave!?" Clearly the green hawk had not expected to see her there. Jet gaped a moment, then his eyes narrowed. "They're trying to take the Arks and you're **helping** them!?" The leader of the Babylon Rogues was clearly outraged by his lieutenant's betrayal. Wave shifted impatiently, clearly wishing she had her gear with her, then strode forward to stand just beneath Jet on his J-gear - gear that _she_ had designed and built for him.

"The Arks are dangerous, Jet! Too dangerous to use, and they'll stay that way until they're put back together!"

"They belonged to our ancestors! We created the Arks to serve us, and I won't let you hand them over to _him_!" The yellow gloved finger jabbed a Knuckles who started at his sudden inclusion in the argument. He opened his mouth to object, but Wave beat him to it.

"_We_ didn't do anything! Our ancestors discovered that the Chronos Rock was too powerful to harness so they smashed it in a vainglorious attempt to bend it to their wills, only to discover that in the process they also broke the mechanism that fended off the Lightless Dark! The Chronos Rock needs to be restored to prevent the Arks being misused again, accidently like we did, or on purpose like Doctor Eggman had planned! And I'm not giving it to him," now she jabbed her own finger towards the echidna, "but to the Angel, who's been the proper guardian of the Rock all along!"

Knuckles was trying to watch both the fight and the air Chaos, which had started shifting irritably in his peripheral vision. He really wished the quarreling birds would leave him out of it. Normally he had no objections to a good fight, but he remembered all too well what Chaos had done, and Angel's powers were probably equivalent. Suddenly Jet and Storm both dove for the cases containing the Arks. Wave flung herself towards the Arks and the Angel as well, the guards lunged towards Storm and Jet, and Knuckles prudently dropped straight down on the floor. The Angel phased somehow, becoming more diffuse but larger, and swung one arm that was suddenly impossibly extended around to hit all three of the Babylon Rogues, passed over Knuckles' head and tagged the guards as well. Then it collapsed in on itself briefly, and evaporated.

Knuckles sprawled on the floor, dimly aware that his mouth was hanging open. Wave was hanging, frozen in midair, stopped in the middle of her leap towards the cases. Jet's board had wavered on out of Knuckles' line of sight with a cry that seemed oddly pitched and quavery for a fourteen-year-old. Storm's board simply crashed into the cases and off tumbled the most grotesque object Knuckles had ever seen: about the size of an infant chao, the tiny albatross was bald except for a few patches of fuzz, wrinkled and damp. The oversized head bobbed on a scrawny neck as the beak gaped and the creature squawked shrilly.

"What happened? What did that thing DO?" Knuckles tore his eyes from the frozen Wave and the diminished Storm and looked towards the voice. An elderly - no, ancient - hawk stood unsteadily by Jet's board, querulously demanding an explanation. The head and facial feathers were nearly entirely white, but the body was still green, albeit a rather faded shade. Knuckle felt a smirk playing around his lips at the sight of the long white beard of feathers hanging below the gaunt beak. He was heartily glad that he'd dropped when he had, and that Angel appeared to have more self-control than Chaos had. Rapid footsteps were heard suddenly, and Knuckles looked towards the doorway. The two guards were standing frozen like Wave, one balanced impossibly on the tips of her toes, the other standing with open beak and raised hand, apparently mid-warning. Behind them, a small brown dokan wren pushed through the curtain, struggling with the last Ark case as it became entangled. Managing to get the case free, she got two more steps into the room before she stopped to stare. 

"That will do, Jet." Knuckles turned belatedly to look at Marahuté. The gold-feathered Lady was unchanged and clearly furious, but it was an icy type of fury rather than the kind that screams and rages. Certainly her voice was cold enough to turn water to ice instantly. "What happened is you acted like an idiot and the Angel responded to protect that which it is responsible for guarding, to your own detriment and that of your friends. I think you had better collect your bodyguard," she eyed the squawking chick a moment, "and take him to the nursery. I'll have to see if I can convince Angel to undo what it has done, and it's not likely to be easy or soon. Don't just stand there gaping!" she snapped at the wren. "Put your case with the rest and then you two," she included the other Ark-bringer, who was still huddled against the wall, "had best return to your homes. Do **not** mention this to anyone!" Her voice was sharp enough to bore holes with and Knuckles had no doubt that the two scuttling out would obey. "Jet, begone!"

Jet opened his beak, then closed it with a snap and hobbled over to scoop up the fussing chick. He paused in front of Wave, still poised in midair. "Lady Marahuté," he began, looking worriedly at his mechanic.

"I will ask Angel to release her, as well as my guards," said the golden griff, in a slightly milder tone. "She is unharmed, merely frozen in time. Nothing can happen to her in this state."

"Oh. Okay." Jet took another look around the room, slightly shamefaced, then shuffled away. Knuckles waited until he had disappeared through the curtain and the chick's cries had died away before getting to his feet. He looked around the room. Wave, Kestrel, and the two guard albatrosses frozen, he and Lady Mara unaffected. The black gryphons were also apparently unaffected, both on their feet with their hackles raised and their tails lashing. For the first time, Knuckles noted the black chains, now pulled taut, that ran from their collars to the Guardian's chair.

"I am afraid, Guardian, that this has rather damaged our plans," said the Lady. "I will speak to the Angel, but I do not know if I can convince it to either restore these or to repair the Chronos Rock, at least not quickly."

"I understand," replied Knuckles. "And I assume a stranger, even another Guardian would cause more hindrance to you than help?"

"I fear so." She looked down, grimacing. "I'll provide you a guide to the closest dokan settlement. You should be able to find your way from there. When I get things restored, I'll send you a message through Wave. She, at least, seems to have some sense."

Knuckles was privately in agreement, but said, "Jet's young. Well, he was young." He was well aware of the irony of him making that excuse, given that there was only two year's difference in their ages. 

Mara smiled faintly. "Yes, he is young, and proud of his power, and unfortunately every bit as talented as his father was. It is a pity that he died so young; no one else dares to even try to control his son. Except Wave, whom he won't listen to, of course." She walked over to stand in front of the suspended swallow and sighed. "Perhaps some time as a old man will force a little wisdom into his skull. Can you find your own way back to the guest house?"

"Yes Lady Marahuté." Knuckles bowed, recognizing the dismissal, and left.


	12. Conversations

11. Conversations

Knuckles stepped out of the elevator and looked around. The hallways of the apartment building were wide and carpeted in a rich blue. The doors were painted to match the carpet, with gold numbers next to each. He stepped onto the thick carpet and started up the hall, half expecting a guard of some sort to appear and try to evict him. It had been a long trip back from Aerie, and the grandness of the building made him feel even grubbier than he actually was. He was acutely aware of the holes in his gloves where his spikes had torn through; he'd worn his own gloves on the three-day journey to Central City and they'd ended up dirty enough that he hadn't dared try to enter while wearing them. As it was, the human doorman had eyed him as if he were considering calling the police.

_Eight sixteen; eight eighteen. What was it? Oh, yes, eight twenty-six. _He eyed the numbers by each door as he passed. _Eight tweeenty- . . . aha, twenty-six. _He knocked carefully on the door to avoid scratching the paint. There was a pause, then rapid footsteps within.

"I **told** you, leave me– oh!" Rouge yanked the door open and stopped in mid-tirade. Then went into a coughing fit. Recovering, she greeted him more politely. "Hi Knuckles. What are you doing here?" She stepped back, tacitly inviting him in.

"Are you all right?" he asked as she started coughing again. She nodded as he entered and waved him towards the living room.

"I've just got a bit of a cold," she said as they stepped out of the foyer and sat down. "I'm sorry I yelled, I thought you were Shadow."

"Shadow the Hedgehog?" Knuckles was surprised. "I thought you liked him." Admittedly Rouge was a flirt, but he'd had the impression that her friendship - and maybe a bit more - with Shadow was genuine.

"I do, but," she waved a hand in frustration. "Ever since I got sick he's been hovering around, and looking panicked if I cough or sneeze. And the time I had to run throw up - I thought he was going to faint! I tried to make him go home but he keeps coming back, and asking if I'm sure I'm okay and telling me to go to the doctor - for a cold! - and he's really getting on my nerves."

Knuckles considered this. It sounded rather out of character for Shadow. Except . . . "Does he know what a cold is?" he asked finally.

"What?" Rouge looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "How could anyone not know what a cold is? Everybody gets them."

"I bet Shadow doesn't," countered the echidna. "He's the Ultimate Life-form and he's supposed to have a superb immune system to permit rapid healing and prevent him getting sick - remember he was created to help cure that little girl. And actually, since he was raised with her he probably has a bit skewed view of disease. A cold probably _would_ have killed Mary." That didn't sound right. "Molly?"

"Maria," the bat corrected him, looking thoughtful. "I hadn't thought about that. But he's still driving me crazy."

"Well, maybe you can explain to him the difference between a normal person's cold and Maria's disease. It was an immune thing, wasn't it? If she caught even a mild cold it would have been catastrophic for her, and that's probably the only experience he's had with diseases." A gleam of light caught his eye and he stood up. On top of a cabinet was a glass case displaying an assortment of stunning gems. Pride of place was given to a large, brilliant cut violet crystal that glowed with an inner light. "You managed to get hold of a Chaos Emerald?"

"Mmm hm, it was part of my fee for my last job." She coughed again. "Sorry; I'm not contagious, but I'm really not fit company right now. Why _did_ you come?"

"I wanted to ask if you had found anything out about the other Chaos. You remember, we talked about it in the Gigan ruins?"

"Of course I remember. Information is my business. You see the gem above the Chaos Emerald?"

Knuckles looked back at the display. The stone above the Emerald was a deep blue-green opal, shot with bits of color that changed as he moved his head. "The opal," he stated.

"That's the one." Rogue moved to the desk on the far side of the room and pulled open a drawer. She tossed him a blue leather jewel case. "This is where it came from."

The echidna looked at the box. At Rouge's suggestion he opened it, and gasped. Stamped in copper on the silk lining of the lid was a very similar creature to the carving on Angel Island. Arched above it were the words, 'Fire-demon Opals'.

"That's it! Or nearly." Rouge handed him a pamphlet as she returned to her seat on the couch. He sat back down himself and gave it a quick look. 'Fire-demon Opals, culled from the heat of an ancient volcano that is guarded by a creature of flame and darkness. Our miners go down into pitch-black lava tubes in search of that elusive flash of opalescent fire, but sometimes find more than they bargained for. They risk not only rockslides, eruptions, or poisonous gas pockets, but an encounter with the Fire Demon himself! And yet they strive on, for only here can be found the most perfect and colorful opals in the world.' Knuckles frowned at Rouge. "Is this for real?" He wasn't sure if she was playing a trick on him or not.

The white bat grinned at him, leaning back into the couch. "It's called marketing, Knuckles. Yes, the opals are found in the depths of the old lava tubes, but the volcano itself is pretty dormant at this point, at least the parts they're mining. I can't find any indications that it's any more risky a place than any other mine, but there are definitely rumors from time to time of a creature that looks like their mascot there, about the height of a dokan. There are also supposed to be a bunch of black imps marked with different colors like the opals that 'serve' the fire demon - they're seen more often and sound rather chao-like based on their height, but I though that black chao were all black. And there are some pockets where the light gets through holes in the tube roofs where there are plants and trees of the type that chao like. I've seen some pictures of them, and one actually had a chao like the ones in Angel Island in it." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Sound worth checking out?"

"Very much so." Knuckles stood up and put the box and pamphlet back on the desk. "Where is this place?"

It's called Thera." Rouge reached over to the end table nearest her and offered him a folder. "This has got all the pertinent information. Find me another opal while you're there and we'll call it even."

"I gave you the bracelet!" the echidna protested, then stopped as she winked at him. He glanced quickly through the papers in the folder. The typed report on top covered rumors, provable facts, suspicions, with a few pages of photos at the end. A second described the area and its history, and included a map. One part of that history caught his eye. "'The god of the volcano was angered by the people's pride and caused the volcano to erupt, destroying the civilization in an instant and reclaiming the beauteous gems of power that he had bestowed when they were favored in his heart.' That sounds very familiar."

"That's what I thought. I'm glad the gods are a bit more patient now than they used to be."

Knuckles snorted. "I don't know, the ancients might well have considered the Black Arms a punishment from some god or other. Thanks a lot, Rouge. I'll bring you an opal – if I can find one to match your beauty."

The bat groaned, which turned into a cough, so she settled for throwing a cushion at him. Knuckles chuckled as he let himself out the door and headed back towards the elevator in far better spirits than when he'd entered.

Once back outside he closed his eyes a moment and concentrated on the Master Emerald. He'd called it to meet him outside of Central City (it had drifted back south after he disembarked at the Gigan Ruins) and thought it had 'agreed', but was never sure how well it could read him, or vice versa, at those distances. However, this time they'd evidently read each other correctly, since he could feel the Emerald about twenty miles south of where he was. Firing up his hover bike, he gladly headed towards home.

Getting up to the island was also much easier with the gear, though he'd had to become a past master at tacking his glides into and along the wind to maintain speed and gain lift at the same time. But that was far more difficult than pointing the nose of the hover board up towards the floating island and zipping directly on up. He kicked off his shoes at the first stream he came to and splashed right in with his gloves and socks still on. After a good scrub with the clean sand of the streambed and a quick stripping of excess water out of his fur with his hands (and much flapping of those hands to try to shake the excess fur off), he picked up shoes, gear, and folder, and headed for the shrine in a much improved frame of mind.

The Master Emerald was right where he had left it, rotating slowly on the altar at the top of the ruined shrine. Chaos was sitting on the lower steps as Knuckles approached, with a trio of chao in front of it: one 'normal' chao, one white air chao, and a black and purple fire chao. _I suppose I should call it a 'water chao' rather than a 'normal' one_, he thought. And then, as he got a good look at the black and purple one, _Good heavens, it looks like an evil teddy bear!_ Unlike the other one he'd seen, this one was predominantly dark purple, with a black belly and face. It also possessed two large round 'ears' like those of a bear or mouse. The large eyes glared at him as he approached and the usual spherical chao bobble over its head was as spiny as a sea urchin. The white one had a yellow ring-shaped bobble and was striped with light and dark orange on its hands, legs and chest. The three short tendrils on the top of its head were also striped in orange. Knuckles could hear one of the chao chattering away volubly as he drew nearer, but the wind was wrong for him to actually hear what it was saying. As he stepped over the low ring of stones that had once been the rim of the pool surrounding the shrine, Chaos nodded and the three chao scampered back towards the bridge, piping greetings as they passed the echidna.

"What was that all about?" he asked Chaos as he reached the steps.

He wasn't really expecting an answer, but Tikal's voice said,_ "The chao were delivering reports from their regions."_

Knuckles looked around and finally spotted the peach glow of her spirit-ball form. She really was hard to see in the daylight. "I wonder if I could get them to do that for me. Where do the black ones live, anyway? I've only ever seen one before and even that was since I started this quest."

"_There are some lava tubes in the Lava Reef area where the roofs have cracked that let in enough sunlight for the gardens to flourish. The fire chao live there, since they are invulnerable to the lava that is still active." _

"I see." It made sense. Though he frequently patrolled almost every other region of Angel Island, Knuckles hadn't explored that area very often. He'd never been there at all until the Death Egg had crashed there; the fumes and heat had dissuaded him from exploring the area when he was younger. And since the Death Egg, he'd only been back a few times to eliminate any traces that Eggman had left, including the poor little robots. _Sonic went through there after Eggman, I think, during the Station Square disaster, but he probably wouldn't have noticed the chao if they'd been doing the hula._ "Sorry? I didn't hear that."

"_I asked if you'd had any luck with the Rogues," _Tikal repeated. Chaos was looking curiously at Knuckles, apparently interested in the answer itself.

"Ha. Well . . ." Knuckles sat down on the steps beside Chaos. "Make yourself comfortable, it's a long story." He related the whole thing, from the picture of the Angel at the Gigan ruins, to his encounter with Storm and Wave at the swallow's home, to the mountain lair of the griffs and Babylonians. Tikal was fascinated by his description of the gryphon dokan and Lady Marahuté, and Chaos paid disconcertingly close attention when Knuckles got to the valley of the 'Dancing Clouds' and the Angel itself. The echidna considered leaving the attack by Jet out of the story, but he had to explain why he hadn't finished his mission once he'd gotten so close, with the Arks there in the same room, inches from each other and scant feet from the one who could restore them. So he told his avid listeners about the invasion of Jet and Storm and the time-powered retaliation of the Angel. "So then the Lady told me that she would try to convince the Angel to release Wave and Kestrel, and restore the Chronos Rock - and Jet and Storm - but it would probably take a while. So I had to give up on that part and come back here. I did get a lead from Rouge as to where I need to go next, but overall I failed," he concluded.

Tikal's light flared up, despite the sun above them. _"You did __**not**__ fail, Knuckles! Jet and Storm may have prevented you completing the task right then, but you found the Angel and managed to get the Arks gathered to be restored, and surely the Lady can convince the Angel to heal them when it cools down, which will mean that part of your task will be done!"_

Knuckles blinked at the spirit light in surprise, startled by her vehemence. Tikal was generally so mild-mannered one expected her to be a passive personality. He was suddenly reminded of her passionately pleading with her father not to take the Chaos Emeralds from the shrine. He actually did feel better though, hearing her insist that he wasn't as much a failure as he'd been thinking he was. He wasn't entirely sure he agreed with her - he should have realized that Storm would go running to Jet after Wave dismissed him, and that Jet would try to disrupt things - but it was nice to know there was someone on his side. Even if she was a ghost.

Chaos stood up, nodding at Knuckles. Pacing up a few steps it leaned over, scrutinizing the wall on the second level of the shrine. Knuckles' curiosity got the better of him, and he followed the watery being up. Chaos stepped off the staircase, waving to Knuckles to stay where he was. Puzzled, the echidna did so, watching the transparent figure peering at the ancient stones with its bulbous green eyes. Finally, Chaos placed one blue finger in a crack between two stones and appeared to concentrate intensely. A moment later it stepped back, withdrawing the watery digit, and as Knuckles watched a bead of water budded up in the crack. The bead quickly spilled out of the crack and down the wall, becoming a thin trickle. At the base of the wall, where in Tikal's day there had been a pool of water on top of the lower level, the thin line of water curled around to fill the hollow of an ancient flagstone. Knuckles looked at Chaos, perplexed, then at Tikal, who had resumed her echidna form and joined him on the staircase.

"If Chaos can restore the water to the shrine, why hasn't it done so before?" he whispered. "And why do so now?"

Tikal tugged a braid thoughtfully. "I don't know," she whispered back. "But it's not done yet, whatever it's doing. Be patient."

"I don't do patient," muttered Knuckles. He heard Tikal's smothered giggle and ignored it.

Chaos was watching the slowly growing puddle, oblivious to the two echidnas. Eventually it squatted down, reaching a hand out above the surface of the water, which was now about a foot across, though less than half an inch deep. The three-fingered hand spread, and the surface of the puddle rippled in a nonexistent wind. Chaos beckoned the two echidnas closer. Knuckles crouched opposite the creature, and Tikal leaned over his shoulder. Reflected in the little pool was the Angel, standing rigidly with its back to Marahuté. Though there was no sound, the golden griff was obviously talking to the creature, and Knuckles assumed she was still trying to convince it to cooperate.

"I don't suppose you could talk to it, and persuade it to help?" he asked.

Chaos gave him a startled look, as if the idea had never occurred to it. Then without warning, it dissolved into a puddle and sank down between the flagstones.

"Was that a yes?" Knuckles asked uncertainly.

"I'm not sure," said Tikal. "Go get some sleep, Knuckles, you look exhausted. I'll keep watch up there." She waved towards the altar on top of the shrine and started to climb the steps again. Knuckles hesitated a moment, then went down and flopped onto the mattress in his sleeping niche.


	13. Thera

12. Thera

The morning sun on his face woke him, and Knuckles sat up, looking contentedly around at the long-familiar mossy stones of his sleeping nook. _Good to be home again. Oh drat_, he thought suddenly, _I should have headed the island for this Thera place before I went to sleep! _ His contentment vanished as he scrambled out of the niche and ran for the stairs.

"Good morning, Knuckles." Tikal was still an echidna and had her arms full of fresh fruit. Her smile turned to a frown. "What's wrong?"

"I forgot to tell the Master Emerald where to go!" he said as he dodged around her.

Her next words stopped him in his tracks. "Thera, wasn't it? We're on our way, but we won't get there until tomorrow evening."

Knuckles turned to look at her. "How did you know where I wanted to go? I don't remember telling you yesterday."

The peach echidna giggled. "You didn't. But you were so out of it yesterday afternoon that you left your hover gear at the foot of the shrine. And that folder full of papers. I hope you don't mind that I read them," she added, looking a bit worried.

"No, that's okay. I didn't know you could read, though." He'd never thought about it, actually, but now that he did, he would have assumed that it was another 'male only' aspect of Empire life.

"I couldn't before," she answered, confirming his guess, "women weren't allowed to learn read the glyphs." She handed him an apple and a few pears, and seated herself on one of the fallen stones. A miniature bear bumbled around from the far side and sat up in front of her, begging, and she smiled as she put an apple in front of it. "The Master Emerald taught me."

"How does the Master Emerald know how to read?" he asked in surprise. He'd thought perhaps one of the dream guides might have taught her - they'd taught him, after all. He looked at her closely as she stared hard at the little bear trying to carry off a fruit half its size. _Is she blushing?_

"Um, you know the reflections that it makes for you to fight with?"

"You mean Sonic or Shadow taught you how to read?" he asked half in jest.

"No," Tikal said faintly, blushing harder, "you did."

"Me?" It hadn't occurred to him that he might be one of the Master Emerald's 'reflections', but it made sense. As the Guardian, it certainly knew him better than it knew Sonic or Shadow (or Charmy!). He wasn't quite sure why the other echidna found this so embarrassing, though; surely he wasn't _that_ bad a teacher? But she didn't seem to want to talk about it further, so he switched subjects. "You're right; Thera was where I wanted to go. Thanks for getting us underway. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go get properly cleaned up."

After a long soak and much scrubbing, and vigorous currying of every part of his hide that he could reach, he felt that he'd temporarily gotten the shedding problem under control. He spent the rest of the day studying Rouge's report, and studying the pictures. Two photos were of the pocket gardens in the lava tubes, the rest were of the island or the gem works.

The latter was interesting. It wasn't, as he'd expected, a company that employed miners to go down and bring up the opals. Rather, Fire-Demon Opals bought and processed gems that were dug up by an ever-changing group of independent miners, some of whom did it as a hobby, or part-time, others of whom did nothing else but hunt for the gems. For a modest fee, anyone who wanted could try their luck, although the dangers of the deeper tunnels were such that it wasn't recommended anyone but professionals go that far. Perhaps he could find Rouge an opal himself. Any excess gems could be sold to the company to reduce his digging fee, and any value over that fee would be paid to him, but he was also free to simply take anything he found and go. Assuming he found anything. Knuckles had been a treasure-hunter long enough to recognize the trap there - most people who paid to dig would end up with little or nothing in the way of salable gems, finding thin or flawed veins of opal or nothing at all. On the other hand, it meant that he wouldn't have any trouble getting into the mine, and he was no novice at digging for gemstones. Getting in deep might still be a problem, since presumably they had some way to keep casual gem-seekers out of the dangerous areas, but getting in in the first place shouldn't be a problem.

He switched to the other report, regarding Thera itself. It seemed an odd bit of coincidence - or was it? - that this island where the fire Chaos lived was so close to Soleana, where he'd been dragged by Sonic for their solar festival. Soleana, sun; Sol Emeralds, Blaze with her fire powers, who guarded them; the fire Chaos in the volcano, and the King stone of the fire gems. The two locations weren't directly adjacent, but they were very close to each other, considering that the fire Chaos could have been from anywhere in the world. Even if you limited it to areas near volcanos, there were a lot more places far distant from Soleana than nearby.

At any rate, Thera itself was the remains of a volcano that had last blown its top about forty-six hundred years ago, and truly outdone itself at that point. An estimated fourteen cubic _miles_ of dirt and stone had been abruptly pulverized and hurled into the air, wreaking havoc on nearby civilizations, and - of course- obliterating the civilization on the island itself. Since that time, the central volcano had gradually built itself back up out of the pit where the middle of the island had once been and now sat off-center in a lagoon, ringed by the remaining parts of the island. There were actually two islands now, not counting the volcano: a crescent enclosing about three quarters of the central lagoon, and a much smaller island blocking about half of the remaining border. Two large channels gave entrance to the lagoon, and permitted ships to reach the protected inner harbors. Knuckles snorted to himself._ Protected as long as the volcano doesn't erupt again. _The southern part of the large island, which was flatter and lower than the mountainous northern portion, held a major city. A smaller town was on the small island. The mines were on the northern portion of the large island, beneath terraced cropland and stony wastes.

While eating breakfast with Tikal the next morning - and introducing her to the taste of pancakes and syrup - Knuckles felt the slight shift that told him that the island had stopped moving. He abandoned his meal and jogged to the edge of the shrine islet to look down. "Very nice," he said softly; Angel Island was within a good gliding distance of the larger city.

"Good luck," said Tikal, as she came up behind him. "Do you want your extreme gear this time?"

Knuckles considered, then shook his head. "I don't know anyone down there to leave it with, and if I end up crawling through tunnels the gear will get in the way. The sea breeze should be enough for me to tack my way back up. Bye." He dove off the edge and started his glide, aiming for the nearest part of the beach.

Once landed, he headed north toward the headquarters of the Opal company. After a several-hour walk, he reached his goal. Unfortunately the offices were closed; apparently it was some sort of holiday. Loud music and the smell of food lured Knuckles to a building a short ways up the street.

It was either a bar that served food or a restaurant that served beer, and it was definitely open for the holiday. Dokan and humans commingled, eating, drinking and generally making a lot of noise. If the volume was any indication, they were having a great time. A fair percentage of the customers were obviously miners, and Knuckles suspected most if not all of the rest were too. It seemed a reasonable place to ask questions, and his stomach was telling him it was time for lunch. He moved in and ordered some food - he'd never understood the attraction of alcohol, and he detested the taste - and plopped himself down in a chair near the wall, studying the patrons at the other tables and the bar.

One individual immediately caught his eye. Although he seemed vaguely familiar, the echidna couldn't quite place him. Taller than the usual dokan, though not so tall as Vector the crocodile, he was also longer bodied and shorter legged than most. A black, wide-brimmed cap was pulled low over his purple brow, and a matching leather jacket almost hid the holster strapped to his belt. A broad purple tail hung down behind him, and he wore black boots. He was also watching the place carefully, Knuckles noted, and not participating in the merriment around him at all. He was oddly inconspicuous for such a unique character, and set off all sorts of warning bells in the Guardian's brain._ That one is __**not**__ a miner. He's casing the place, I think, and he's Trouble with a capital T._

However, tall-and-purple finished his drink and strolled casually out of the bar, with no hint of the anticipated Trouble. A few moments later, a motorcycle revved loudly outside, and roared away. Another group of obvious miners came in and dropped onto barstools, plopping their safety helmets on the bar and calling for 'the usual'. One turned to survey the bar, noticing the echidna almost at once and calling the others' attention to him.

As all four turned to stare, Knuckles calmly finished the last bite of his meal, and stood up. Walking over to them he said casually, "Hello, can you tell me who to see about digging in the mines? I hadn't realized that today was a holiday." _Since they already know I'm new in town and look ready to make something of, let's see if I can head them off at the pass. And if they want a fight, I can give them one of those too. _Although, since two were human, he doubted it would come to that; humans were well aware that dokan were a lot stronger and tougher than they looked, and dokan that were also miners would be even more so.

Knuckles didn't miss the glances that the quartet passed around. "Well," said the wolf, who was an unremarkable grey with a darker patch on his chest, "you won't be getting anyone up at the main office today, and it's closed on weekends. I'm afraid you'll have to wait 'til Monday to register, and they won't let you into the dig without being registered." He frowned and wrinkled his brow, appearing to be thinking hard. "Unless," he added, "you had someone who _was_ registered take you in as an apprentice. That's allowed."

"I see," answered Knuckles. He had the feeling he was being set up, but played along for the moment, until he could see where the trap was. The 'apprentice' thing would be easy enough to check on, so it was probably the truth, but he thought he saw where the pitfall lay. "Do you know anyone who might need an apprentice?" he fed them the straight line. "One of you gentlemen, perhaps?" He tried to look hopeful.

They were very good at the game. The two humans and the mole looked genuinely thoughtful, but the wolf seemed to be trying just a bit too hard. "Ah, of course," he said after a moment, "Becca could use someone. She was just saying the other day, wasn't she, Mick?" He got a confirming nod from one of the humans. He looked over Knuckles' head, scanning the bar. "Ah, good. See over there, near the window? The one in the grey coveralls? That's Becca Flatypus."

Knuckles looked where indicated and saw a female dokan in the grey coveralls described eating at a table. He couldn't make out what she was, all he could see was a the back of a dark brown head. "I see her. You don't think she'll mind my asking?"

"Not at all. She's very friendly."

_Aha! _Knuckles thanked the group and started across the room. It wouldn't hurt to ask, although he suspected the trap was that she was _not_ a friendly person. Either that or she wouldn't want help, but most likely the miners were expecting to see a city-slicker get shot down by an experienced hand. _Little do they know I can be just as rude and I've got a good bit of experience myself._ Reaching the table, he stopped beside the other dokan and said, "Excuse me, Ms. Flatypus–"

He stopped there as the temperature at the table dropped forty degrees. All conversation seemed to have gone dead, and you could have heard a feather hit the floor. The woman he had addressed snapped her head up and stared at him with eyes that could have frozen him on the spot. "What did you call me?" she asked, quietly and lethally as a stalking panther.

_Oops. _"I– uh, I thought, that is–" he stammered. He could now hear smothered snickers and guffaws from the bar. _I guess it was her name that's the tricky point._

She has risen to her feet and was now glaring at him eye to eye over her strange, leathery, duck-like bill; she was exactly the same height he was. She flicked her left wrist and brought her hand up to rest the suddenly-appeared pickax on her shoulder. _Gulp. She's got the equivalent of Amy's appearing hammer; I'm in for it now. _But then, "Excuse me a moment," she said with unexpected politeness - and flung the axe past his shoulder and towards the bar.

Knuckles heard the solid thunk of metal sinking into wood, and a chorus of strangled yelps. Turning he saw the wolf now pressed back on his stool against the bar, with the point of the pickax lodged in the seat of the stool between his splayed legs. His friends were cowering on their own seats. The echidna cringed inwardly in involuntary reflex, even as he admired the precision of her aim.

"Oh, sorry Wulfie," the dark brown dokan said sweetly, "I'll try to aim a little better next time; I hate it when I miss." The grin on her beak was positively vicious as she stepped over and yanked the pickax free. She returned to Knuckles. "Have you eaten? Well then, care to walk a bit? The name's Becca _Platy_pus, and I'm sorry you ran into that lot."

Knuckles acceded to the walk, and apologized again as they left the restaurant. "I knew they were setting me up, but I thought you were going to snarl at me or something . . . it didn't occur to me that they'd given me the wrong name. Only," he said a bit hesitantly, "I don't see why getting your name wrong is such a big deal?"

The platypus stopped short and looked at him. "Are you putting me on? You - well, _they_ - called me flatypus." She shook her head at his perplexed look. "You have seen girls before right?"

"Uh, yes, of course." Knuckles had no idea what she was getting at.

"And you don't see anything missing?"

_Missing? _He looked her up and down, and then, feeling rather silly and wrongfooted, walked a circle all around her_. Head, tail, arms, legs, torso. Two eyes, two ears, a nose -er, beak and a mouth . . . . _"Um, no?" As she looked at him incredulously, he turned red and stammered, "I, um, wasn't around girls much while I was growing up."

"Obviously." She frowned suddenly. "What are you anyway? I've never seen your type around here."

"I'm an echidna," answered Knuckles humbly, considering sinking into the ground but still having no idea what she was getting at. "Knuckles the Echidna."

"An echidna!?" Suddenly she started to laugh, shaking her head. She certainly had volatile moods. "That would explain it. That's the _only_ thing that would explain it." She started walking again, but stopped after a few steps. "Wait, I thought echidnas were extinct."

"Not entirely," answered Knuckles shortly. He didn't care to discuss it at the moment.

Becca sighed. "Okay, look." She poked her chest out, and pulled the top of her coverall flat against it. "Now, what don't you see?"

_What don't I– _Knuckles dutifully looked at the young woman's chest. It looked like a chest._ Okay; compare to Amy, to Tikal, to Rouge -oh._ "No breasts?" he suggested, turning even redder.

The platypus relaxed her pose and released her coverall. "Bingo. Now for reasons I don't understand, my lack of breasts has become rather a joke among a lot of the miners and I'm bloody sick of it. I'm a platypus, and we don't have breasts any more than you echidnas do. We're monotremes!"

"Yes," agreed Knuckles automatically. Then he thought of Wave. "But . . . I know a dokan swallow, and she–"

"I know," Becca cut him off. "The birds do, but we don't, which doesn't make much sense. But that's life, and there's no reason for them to give _me_ trouble over it just because _their_ females have a bunch of fat hanging off their fronts.

"So, you want to be my apprentice 'til Monday?"

The sudden change of topic threw Knuckles off track. "Sorry?"

"I said, 'Do you want to be my apprentice 'til Monday?' Because you can't register to dig on your own until then. You can dig, can't you?" She eyed him skeptically.

Knuckles took the chance to show off (and burn off a bit of his embarrassment). He jumped in the air and dove into the ground, spiked fists flashing. In thirty seconds he had a hole as deep as he was tall, and looked over the rim at her. "A little," he said smugly.

Becca laughed. "All right then Knuckles the Echidna, did you have anything else planned for the afternoon, or are you ready to hit the tunnels now?"


	14. The Tunnels of the Demon

13. The Tunnels of the Demon

Knuckles padded after Becca through tunnels left by receding lava. She had fitted him out with hard hat and headlamp, rock sack, and locator badge with his name and hers on it. "You must always wear the badge when you're in the tunnels for safety reasons. It's supposed to help rescuers find you in case of an accident. It's a lot of nonsense, really," she'd added as she pinned the badge to the shoulder strap of his sack. "If there's a cave-in the detectors can't read the badges through more than about four inches of rock."

"So why bother?" the echidna had asked, twisting the badge to look at it.

The platypus had shrugged. "Makes it easier to ID the bodies afterwards, I guess." It was not exactly the most comforting thought to walk through the darkness with.

On the other hand, Knuckles had come prepared for digging, bringing his 'Shovel Claws' along; they strapped over his gloves and enabled him to dig through most rocks as if they were dirt. Besides, most of the lava tubes were roofed with a thin enough layer of rock that a cave-in wouldn't be a major disaster; it was only the deeper tunnels that were truly traps if they collapsed. He had asked about the gardens in the roofless lava tubes and they were headed out to look at one.

"It's not the closest, mind," Becca warned him. "But we may find some good stuff on the way there. The nearer tunnels are all played out." Knuckles didn't mind; he wasn't in a particular hurry and he was interested in scouting for some gems himself.

Actual gems might be played out in the nearer tunnels, but there were plenty of patches of opalescent matrix. Too thin or too irregular to be cut and polished as gems, some still displayed the vaunted 'play of color', flashing with myriads of colors in the headlamps' glare. Other places were 'merely' opal; unlike the gem-quality precious opals, these patches lacked the play of color completely. The walls bore out the truth of the platypus' comment, though; pocked and scraped with the marks of many axes and drills. Looking at the patterns, Knuckles guessed that a lot of these were amateurs, since many had tried to take either precious opal that was too thin to use, or hacked bits from the non-precious seams. As the pair traveled further along the tube, these signs lessened and the patches of opal matrix grew greater. Eventually, they started finding spots where there was enough of the collected matrix to actually cut, although it was low quality, pale and with little 'fire'. Knuckles scrutinized a few areas, but each time decided against trying to break the opal out. Becca watched him and finally commented, "You have a good eye for the stuff not to bother with. Do you know what to actually take?"

"Thick enough to polish, darker colors preferred, and full of 'fire'," answered Knuckles. "Although 'play of color' is the preferred term for all the little color sparkles." He grinned at her. "I've never actually prospected for opals before, I usually see them in their finished state. But I know that the cutting and polishing doesn't add anything, so if it's pale and lusterless here, it'll be pale and lusterless once we get it out."

"True that," agreed the platypus. She paused to study some marks painted on one wall, at an intersection of three tunnels. "Left here, and then we just follow that to the garden. Why are you looking for it anyway? Not planning on catching an imp are you?"

"Actually, I have imps at home, although I've only seen one once." Knuckles watched her out of the corner of his eye as he continued, "I need to find their boss, actually."

"Their boss?" The odd leathery bill turned toward him as the gold eyes narrowed. "You're not one of those crypto people are you? Looking for the so-called fire demon?"

"I'm not a cryptozoologist, no." He was actually rather pleased with himself for knowing that term, although he couldn't for the life of him remember where he'd learned it. It meant a scientist who looked for supposedly extinct or legendary animals in the hopes of proving them either alive or real. "I _am_, however, looking for the Chaos of fire, which I believe is the creature people have been calling a fire demon."

"Chaos of fire?" Becca sounded understandably skeptical. "So the 'imps' are really what? –Confusions of fire?"

Knuckles grinned. "Actually they're called chao, but yes, they are related to fire somehow. I'm not entirely certain how," he admitted, "but ages ago they were associated with the fire god. I don't suppose you happen to know who lived here around the time the volcano blew?"

"When the island exploded? A whole lot of dead people." The platypus trailed one hand along the wall as she considered. "I don't know exactly, but it was the forerunners of the pantherines. It's why there _are_ pantherines, in fact; the original dokan that lived here were so nearly wiped out that they had to marry out of their race to survive."

"I'm not familiar with pantherines," said Knuckles slowly. "Are they black cats, like panthers?"

"Nah, they're big-cat hybrids. They come in all sorts of patterns now, but they're tigers mixed with leopards mixed with cheetahs and so forth. But by now they've mostly homogenized except for the patterns and occasional lankys. Those are ones that show the cheetah blood most clearly, by being tall and slender. I think the cheetahs may have been the original inhabitants, but I'm not certain."

"No lions? The Lion tribe was one that my people fought against, a long time ago, and were one of the few races to survive the Echidnan Empire's expansion attempts."

"I think there were some lions mixed in there; I know some of the males have manes. But if you really want to know, take the ferry to the other island tomorrow; that's where the local pantherines live. The main population has moved onto the mainland, and some have spread out farther, but some always remain here in the homeland, same as there will always be platypus living on the Australian Islands.

"Ah, here we are; see the light ahead?"

Knuckles did. Together the dokan moved towards the light and the jagged silhouettes of rocks and leaves until they actually stepped into the garden. "Chao fruit," he murmured, "round fruit, square, what's this?" He climbed agilely up to a branch to pluck a strange, dark-red fruit he'd never seen before. A judicious sniff triggered thoughts of hot peppers and spicy foods. _Hmph. Suitable for a fire-associated creature._ Given that it was the only fruit in the garden he didn't recognize, it was a safe bet that this was the dark chao fruit.

"Knuckles!" Becca's whisper was the merest breath of sound, and he looked down to see her staring at the tunnel mouth on the opposite side of the garden. A troop of the dark chao were filing in and spreading out, wielding chao-sized spades and watering cans. All adults, in a variety of shapes and with a similar variety of trim colors. Knuckles saw one of the ones that looked like Shadow, and another that was similar except that it had green markings. Suddenly one of the creatures spotted Becca, although the dark brown platypus was pressing against the shadowed tree trunk trying to hide. With a sudden squeal, the black-and-yellow chao fled, followed by the rest of the group. Becca stepped forward, apparently to see where they went, then flinched back with a gasp.

"Becca!" hissed Knuckles, "Don't move!" Apparently aroused by the cries of its 'children', the Fire Demon had charged into the garden. Burning yellow eyes spotted the terrified platypus at once, and the thing seemed to flare up larger as it approached, a nightmare of shadow and flame.

Knuckles saw Becca's fingers twitch and repeated, "Don't move!" The last thing they needed was for her to whip out that pickax and trigger an attack by the Chaos. Considering what 'his' Chaos could do with water and the fact that they were standing over the magma chamber of a large (even if mostly destroyed) volcano, the echidna did _not _want to send this Chaos into a rage. His mind scrabbled for ideas, trying to figure out how to defuse the situation. But as the Demon Chaos started to stalk stiffly towards his petrified companion, he gave it up. Tails was the thinker of the group anyway.

The scarlet echidna jumped off the branch and glided to the ground in front of Becca. Throwing up both hands he simultaneously bowed, in the ancient echidnan greeting. The words he spoke were also Ancient Echidnan, the language of the Echidnan Empire. "Greetings to the fire god's chao from the Guardian of the water god's shrine. My spear will guard your house and my club your person, if you will grant me the honor."

He hadn't really expected it to work. But to his relief and amazement, the black-and-flame creature stopped and made a sort of curtsey with its arms splayed. It did not, of course, speak. But the message was clear enough when it stabbed a finger at the platypus and folded its arms.

"Do you understand the modern language?" asked Knuckles. The creature nodded; that would simplify things at least. The echidna stood his ground and kept his eyes on the Chaos, but turned his head slightly to speak to Becca over his shoulder. "Go back into the tunnel and wait for me. You don't have to go far, just to where the floor is more rock than dirt."

He heard her gulp, then the sound of her cautious steps. He guessed she was backing away, rather then turning her back on their challenger. About the same time he heard her steps stop, the creature in front of him relaxed subtly, the tension in its posture easing. Knuckles let his own tension drop a notch as well. "We apologize for alarming your children," he said. "I needed to speak to you, but I didn't realize they would be afraid of us."

The Demon regarded him stolidly a moment, then held up a three fingered, spiky hand. Fire burst into being above the flame-colored palm. It was a truly dramatic-looking being: the base color was dead black, but the hands were mottled with streaks of red, yellow and orange that truly resembled fire. Two dependant tendrils, more like Chaos' than the Angel's 'ears', dangled behind its head and were also tipped in yellow and orange. The upright, curved horns and the feet were tipped in darker reds and purples, like sullenly-glowing coals. A flame-colored crescent on its chest bore an uncanny resemblance to the white one on Knuckles' own chest and, a ball of gas-blue fire burned between the horns, contrasting with the newly-generated orange flames it held. As with the other two Chaos, it was mouthless.

It raised its other hand, and the flame flattened out between them, like a puddle of burning oil. Small figures of flame rose from the surface and moved across it, interacting. Knuckles moved carefully closer and recognized some of the fire shapes as chao, and other, larger ones as dokan and humans. Tiny, sparking pickaxes and hammers were wielded that sent the chao-flames fleeing to the edge of the stage, where they remerged into the base.

"The miners have attacked them." Knuckles felt a surge of disappointment. He wasn't really surprised, but chao were such harmless things, he never understood how some people could attack them, or even kill them. Sure, they could be annoying at times, but . . . . He looked back up at the glowing eyes. "They were looking for gems in the gardens? And the chao were in the way?"

The dark head nodded.

"You are the only Guardian for them?" The Demon nodded again and Knuckles frowned. His assigned task was the Master Emerald, but he'd discovered that the chao had been part of that charge in the past, when Tikal had served the shrine. And Marahuté certainly watched over the air chao - her title was Guardian of the Dancing Clouds, after all. There was no King stone here to guard, but why was there no one to watch over the fire chao?

He asked that question of the creature in front of him. If he understood the answer correctly, the old Guardian had died a long time ago and the replacement or replacements had been unacceptable. He wasn't sure if there had been only one that failed, and then no more, or if there had been multiple unacceptable candidates. Apparently part of the problem had been greed, though, as with the ancient echidnas. In this case though, it was the gems in the volcano that were the lure, since the Sol Opals themselves had vanished long ago. They were opals, not emeralds, the Demon had been very clear on that point, fetching several shards of gem-quality opals from the fringes of the garden to demonstrate.

Knuckles explained his mission, and that he needed to find the pieces of the King Opal. The Demon gave him a level stare and raised a hand again. Fire flared in its palm, then it held up the opal shards with its other hand. Palm flare, opals; palm flare, opals. It cocked its head at the echidna.

"I get, I get it!" laughed Knuckles. "The Fire Opal, then. Can you help me find the pieces and fix it?"

The platform of fire again, and a bust of a feline dokan with rounded ears. A few sparks that might have been shards of stone, falling into rippling waves.

"I certainly hope that that's water and not lava," muttered the echidna. "So you want me to bring you a guardian and the shards?"

The Demon nodded, then turned an left. Evidently the audience was over. Knuckles returned to Becca who was staring after the fire Chaos. He suggested that they call it a day, and she acceded with relief. However, she took a different route back and they found a recent rockfall had exposed a fresh patch of gem-quality opal, so they did not leave the tunnels with empty sacks. She seemed glad to drop him off at a hotel (he'd decided not to fly up to Angel Island each night) and he suspected she'd 'forget' to come back the next morning.


	15. Great Cats

14. Great Cats

He'd misjudged the platypus, however, for she was waiting on the porch when he left the hotel in the morning. "Hey, Knuckles," she greeted him. "I thought you might want to take the ferry over to Santorini today."

"Where?"

"Santorini. That's the name of smaller island and its town. Where the pantherines live. Didn't that thing want you to talk to them or something?"

"Hmm, something like that. I think the Demon wants me to find a new guardian, but I don't know how exactly to go about it. It's not exactly the sort of thing you can walk up and ask people. And I'm also supposed to find the missing pieces of the Fire Opal, which are under the ocean."

The flexible bill frowned. "Why does it have to be from under the ocean? There are plenty of fire opals in the mine, mate, and they're a lot easier to get to."

"Uh, no. It's not a common fire opal, you see, it's, well, 'the' Fire Opal. It's a gem about the size of, of . . . well, it's about as tall as I am, and that big around as well." He caught her skeptical look. "It really is," he insisted, even as he realized that he actually had no idea what this King stone had looked like. If it was an opal, it couldn't be faceted like the Master Emerald, could it? "Anyway, I need the pieces of this one specific stone, and they were lost into the ocean centuries ago."

"Oh, aye? And just how are you going to find stones that sank into the mud centuries ago? The lagoon's pretty deep."

"With this." He whipped out Tails' locator device. "A friend of mine built this to locate, uh . . . ." 'Strange power sources' didn't sound right, and he wasn't certain that he wanted word to get around about the shards anyway. The purple, hatted dokan was still in the back of his mind, even though he couldn't for the life of him remember who the guy was.

"Special Fire Opal shards, I suppose. That'd be Tails Prower, would it? The fox cub that saved Station Square?" She laughed at his dumbfounded look. "We're not complete barbarians here 'Knuckles the Echidna', even if a lot of us are miners. Sonic the Hedgehog is big news, and I went digging online the night I met you about echidnas. I admit I wasn't sure I believed the half of it until I saw that thing yesterday, but you're an alright bloke.

"So, you really know Sonic and Tails Prower and Shadow the Hedgehog? And go all over the world fighting Doctor Eggman? Isn't he scary? He looks so grim!"

"Ah . . . ." Knuckles had only rarely run into the hero-worship thing, and it threw him off stride every time. "Um, yes, yes, and I haven't really seen Eggman looking grim, but he's not usually that scary."

"No, I mean Shadow the Hedgehog! He looks so grim and he tried to blow up the planet and then he saved it from those horrid aliens singlehandedly and he must be a terrifying person to actually meet." The glow in her eyes was only slightly less unnerving for being directed at the absent Shadow rather than at Knuckles himself.

"Well, no, he's not that scary," he protested. He had a great deal of respect for Shadow's abilities, but was certain enough of his own - especially when backed by the Master Emerald - to not really be afraid of the black hedgehog. "He's no Sonic," - _thank goodness _- "he's not always making light of things and joking around, but he's an okay guy. He's just reserved." _That is probably the understatement of the year . . . but I'm not sure she heard a word I said anyway._ He cleared his throat loudly. "You said something about catching a ferry?"

Becca blinked, and blushed. "Oh, right. This way, I think we'll just have time to catch the next one." She led him off down the street and Knuckles hoped that Sonic and Shadow _et al _were not going to come up again. He wasn't certain whether it was more mortifying to be hailed as a hero or dumped in the shadow (no pun intended) of one. People who recognized him around Central City tended to either treat him with awe, or demand to know what 'Sonic and Shadow are like, _really'_. Becca had at least recognized Tails' talents; he'd have to tell the little fox that, since poor Tails was even more likely to be overshadowed, for all that he _had_ actually saved Station Square by defusing Eggman's bomb.

They arrived at the ferry in good time, joining a small cluster of human and dokan tourists about three minutes before the gate opened to let them board. The two monotremes found themselves a spot the bow, leaning on the rail. As they cast off, Knuckles pulled out the locator again, flicked it on, and twiddled the knobs. Almost at once the screen brightened in two places, one strong signal and a weaker one. The GPS inside quickly traced a map of the island across the screen, revealing that both signals were coming from the interior lagoon, rather than off the outer shores of the island. But even as Knuckles registered that thought, Becca pointed out a new, fainter blip in the open ocean.

"You'll need to charter a boat for that, mate. I know just the bloke for the job, if you don't mind my suggesting someone." Before Knuckles could reply, she went on, "And I'm sorry about back in front of the hotel, I promised myself I wouldn't go all fangirly and then I did it anyway. But I never met a _real_ hero before, or anyone who knows one. I'm too much a coward to do anything like save the world, but I _can_ help you find these Opals, if you'll let me."

Knuckles grinned at the platypus. "You wander around in dark, crumbling tunnels inside an active volcano and you call yourself a coward? I can use the help; I don't know anyone here so I'd be a prime target for someone who wanted to trick me. I'm unfortunately good at getting tricked," he added with a scowl.

Becca ignored the final comment, pointing out two more blips - one stronger than the first one - that had appeared on screen as they traveled. "How are you planning to bring these things up? Out there you can dive pretty easily, the sea bed is fairly shallow, but the lagoon is _deep_."

"I was planning on diving for them," answered the echidna. "I can dive pretty deep, and I brought my air necklace with me." He showed that device to her, it was another of Tails' creations that filtered oxygen out of the water as he swam and stored it for breathing. "I can't go all the way down to the bottom of this crater," he admitted, "but I can get pretty far." He put both the necklace and the locator device away as the ferry started maneuvering to dock. The crowd waiting to board at this end was a lot smaller and mostly composed of feline dokan.

Knuckles saw two cats, similar to (although smaller than) Big, but the rest were presumably pantherines. Two were orange with black stripes and looked basically like tigers, but the other three waiting were more exotic. All were about half a foot taller than Knuckles and possessed of feline heads with widely spaced, rounded ears on a typically dokan frame, but the three that stood out were varying shades of tawny-gold to orange and marked with dark brown or black elongated rosettes. As the echidna followed Becca into the village proper, he spotted one that stood out even more dramatically.

"That's a lanky, mate," the platypus said, following his gaze. Then she grinned "In fact, that's Rex. Come on, he's a good one to talk to."

"Lankies are the ones that are most cheetah-like, you said," objected Knuckles. "I thought cheetahs were gold with black freckles." The dokan they were now approaching was neither tawny nor spotted, but white marked with an intricate pattern of swirling stripes. Except for the tear stripes outlining its muzzle, it looked nothing like any cheetah Knuckles had ever heard of.

"I did say that, and most _are_ tawny and freckled, but he's a white king." She shook her head at his puzzlement. "Haven't you ever heard of a king cheetah?"

Knuckles had no idea what she was talking about. "I assume that's not the husband of the queen cheetah," he said helplessly.

They were close enough that the pantherine heard that. With a long-suffering tone he said, "Ha. Ha. A king cheetah is one that has 'blotched tabby' markings instead of 'spotted tabby' markings. Or, if you aren't a cat person, I have fat stripes and swirls instead of spots. And further, I'm white with charcoal markings instead of the usual black on tawny, so they call me the Snow King. Hi, Becca." He was probably the gloomiest-looking person Knuckles had ever encountered.

"Hi, Rex." She studied him a moment, having to tip her head way back, since he was a full foot taller than the monotremes and proportionally much skinnier. 'Lanky' was a good adjective. "What's with the long face? You're about to step on your chin."

"I don't know why everyone always thinks something is wrong. Why should anything be wrong? I'm only the _only_ person in the village interested in researching our _true_ history, rather than mocking-up the skewed version for the tourists to squeal over." He looked at Knuckles. "I'm an archaeologist and historian, you see. And you're an echidna. Is that island you flew over here in really a part of the ancient Echidnan Empire? We used to be aware of them, you know, before they were a empire. Of course you know how that turned out. The Babylonians traveled the world and recognized the echidnas and the Cretan cheetahs as legitimate, if primitive, civilizations. Only they came to a messy end themselves. And so–"

"This is Knuckles the Echidna," interrupted Becca, cutting the pantherine off mid-speech. "Knuckles, this is Rex, and if you don't interrupt him you'll never get a chance to talk. Rex, what do you know about the imps and the Fire Demon in the opal tunnels?"

The white cheetah snorted. "Pure myth. It supposedly arose from the ancient legends of Crete, about a king who offended the fire god and was cursed to throw his firstborn son into the volcano. The son was transformed into the Fire Demon, but it's all a fraud; the myth was partially mistranslated by an archaeologist and the missing pieces fabricated by his wife to make it a nice, moral tale. In reality there is no such creature, or–"

"Oh, aye, there is!" retorted Becca, interrupting again. "I saw the thing yesterday, and Knuckles called it a Kay, a Kays . . . what did you call it?"

"It's the Chaos of fire, and the so-called 'imps' are fire chao," explained the echidna. "There are three . . . categories of chao, associated with the ancient gods of fire, air, and water, and each has a guardian Chaos who can manipulate the associated element. Or at least the element connected to its King stone," he corrected himself. "The air Chaos defended itself from attack by manipulating time, rather than air."

"The Angel!? You've actually seen the Angel of Babylon?" Shock and a gleam of almost avarice replaced the gloom on the white pantherine's face. "Tell me, please! I've studied the old legends about Babylon, and all the texts that have been dug up there, or copied from the Gigan Ruins and the Nameless City, but it's real? You've seen it? Tell me about it, please!"

"He can't tell you anything until you shut up and listen!" barked Becca. "Well, mate?" she turned to Knuckles. "I'll leave if you like, but–"

"No, that's all right," said Knuckles. "You can stay. But shall we get something to drink and sit down? It's a long story."

The three repaired to a nearby café, taking a table in the shade and ordering drinks. As soon as they were served, Knuckles gave the entire story as he knew it, starting with the destruction of the Empire by Chaos, his own raising as Guardian, his receiving of the instructions from Uaxactun, and what had followed. Gradually the academic fervor had faded from Rex's face, to be replaced by gloom again.

"So as it stands," he concluded when Knuckles was done, "you have the Chaos and all the stones of water, the Chaos of air which is mad at the Babylons and must be pacified by the Guardian there before it will reform the Chronos Rock if it can be done, and a Chaos of Fire that has neither Guardian nor stone, nor even the pieces of a stone. And all of the subordinate stones for fire _and_ air are missing. It all seems quite hopeless to me."

"_Everything _seems hopeless to you," said Becca. "I bet if it's a cloudy morning you don't even believe that the sun will come up. Will you help us find the pieces of the Fire Opal?" Knuckles noted with amusement that she was taking charge as if she'd been given the quest herself. He was even more amused by Rex's reaction.

The pantherine jerked his head up and stared at the platypus with his ice-blue eyes wide. "You want me to go into the _water_?" His voice actually squeaked on the last word and Knuckles hurriedly rubbed his nose to hide his smile. Even Sonic wasn't quite that terrified of it.

"No, I want you to go on a boat. While _we_ go into the water." Becca rolled her eyes at Knuckles, then grinned reassuringly at the pantherine. "Aren't archaeologists supposed to dig up ancient artifacts? And they're definitely historical."

"Dig, not dive!" The pale blue eyes above the charcoal tear stripes glared at her as the archaeologist flattened his ears, but she'd clearly won the point. Finally he sighed. "Oh, very well, but only if you introduce me to the Fire Demon. Preferably before we go on the boat, since it will probably capsize and drown us all."

"That's not really possible, since you're on this island and it's over there in the volcano," pointed out Knuckles. "But the ferry seemed stable enough to me; why do you think it's likely to capsize?"

"It happened," said Rex.

"Forty _years_ ago," added Becca. "During a storm, when it ignored the Sea Authority's warning to remain at dock. And they were close enough to shore that the only person who died was one who had a heart attack from the stress.

"Should we head back already?"

Knuckles had been looking at the locator again. "Not yet," he said slowly. "It looks like two of the pieces are here on this island. That way," he pointed towards the southeast.

Rex was reluctant to go, but after Knuckles and Becca arranged to meet him at the ferry dock later he suddenly changed his mind and came with them, muttering about how someone was going to turn an ankle or break their neck on the steep, rocky slopes. The terrain was fairly rough, but hardly life-threatening, in the echidna's opinion. He located the approximate area of the first power source fairly easily, but the exact location appeared to be about three feet into the solid rock side of a ravine. (Rex was now muttering about flash floods drowning them all, although there was still not a cloud in the sky.) Knuckles sent the pantherine and the platypus back up top while he pulled on his Shovel Claws, then started to dig. The claws did enable him to scoop dirt even faster than his native echidna talent did, but their primary advantage was that they enabled him to burrow into rock. It was, of course, a lot slower than digging a hole in dirt but faster than using a drill, and required no additional power. As soon as the other two were clear, Knuckles attacked the rock face before him with a will and two fists. Shortly afterward, he caught his first flash of scarlet and orange light from the depths of the hole, and started widening it with more caution. The shard of opal seemed almost to slither out of its stone cocoon into his hands, and came free with little effort on his part. He wasn't sure how long he stood staring at it, tilting it slightly and watching the scintillating flashes of blue and violet, green and gold. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Becca whooped in his ear.

"Whee! You did it Knux, you found one of the shards!" She reached out a finger but stopped herself, not quite daring to touch the gorgeous fragment. "That is magnificent," she said in more restrained tones, "I know it's not for sale, but do you have any _idea_ how much some people would pay for that?"

"Everything's for sale," said Rex gloomily. "All you need is someone with enough money to express an interest, and people will be trying to steal it away from us to sell it themselves."

"I don't think anyone would need to express interest in this," said Knuckles thoughtfully. "There are enough people with an eye out for fine quality opals that the thieves would simply snatch it and then offer it to the highest bidder." He weighed the gem thoughtfully in one hand, trying to decide the best way to protect it. _Carrying a lot of these around is probably not a good idea, but I'm not sure where to hide them here. If I take each piece as I find it to the Demon's garden, that will only attract attention there. Even if they don't know I have these things, someone might get the idea that I've found a motherlode of gems and try to follow me to mine it themselves._ He sighed; life was a lot simpler on Angel Island. "I think we should try to recover as many as we can this morning, and then," he glanced at Becca, "we can go hunting in the tunnels again and incidently drop these off with the Demon." The platypus nodded in agreement. "But," Knuckles suddenly thought of a problem with the plan, "how will we keep the captain of the boat from seeing these, if we have to hire a boat to look in the lagoon and the ocean?"

"We take my boat," said Rex distastefully. "I already know about the shards, and I can just suffer along and take ill from getting my fur soaked - assuming we don't all just drown."

Becca and Knuckles stared at the white cheetah. "You have a boat?" the platypus asked in surprise. "With all that fuss you make about drowning and getting wet?"

"Of course I have a boat," answered Rex, in tones of injured dignity. "I live on an island."

Which was not perhaps the best of explanations, but it was the one his companions had to be content with.


	16. Searching for Sparks

15. Searching for Sparks

Rex did indeed have a boat, not very large but well-maintained. After locating the second shard on the island, the pantherine lead the way to where it was docked. After they had boarded the grey-and-blue craft, he cast off and piloted them out into the lagoon.

Becca thought they should head on out to the open ocean. "We'll be on the continental shelf there, so it'll be shallow enough to dive for the sparks. The lagoon's too deep."

"Sparks?" Knuckles was puzzled by the term, but maintained, "I can go deeper than you think I can."

Becca rubbed the fur on the back of her neck. "Sorry, I keep calling them sparks in my head, because they're little bits of the Fire Opal. I suppose it's silly."

"Oh. No; I like it, actually. But I think we'd do better to search the lagoon first. Besides, if it _is_ too deep for me to dive for the 'sparks', we'll need to come up with an alternate plan, so the sooner we find out for sure, the better. What do you think, Rex?"

"I think you'd better be awfully careful if you go down there. What if a vent opens and scalds you, or there's a rockslide that traps you, or--"

"I'm not planning on getting that close to the volcano just yet." Knuckles cut him off. The echidna was studying the locator and had managed to get a topographical map of the lagoon. Apparently it was about 1300 feet deep - averaging 300 feet deeper than the surrounding ocean. "Look, the sparks' signals are all coming off of these columnar things, that are way taller than the bottom of the lagoon itself. I'll leave these three, that are over towards the volcano, til later, but these," he tapped four other blips on the screen, "are more-or-less in line with the route from Santorini to Thera, so let's check those out as we go."

Muttering under his breath, Rex set a course for the closest of the 'columns'. Some appeared to actually be pillar-shaped, other were more like underwater walls. Knuckles guessed that they might be remnants of the original magma chamber walls, left standing since most of the force of the eruption had blown upwards, but he wasn't really certain. He didn't see that it mattered, anyway. What did matter was that one of the sparks was apparently 500 feet below him and about 50 yards off the port bow.

Rex throttled back, following the echidna's instructions. The boat drifted closer to the target as it slowed, then Knuckles slipped off his shoes and dove over the edge. The water was colder than he inspected, but nothing like the icemelt in the Angel Island springs, so he ignored the chill. Taking one more bearing from the locator - now strapped to his wrist - he pulled in a long breath and dove under.

Stroking his way rapidly downward, he squinted into the saltwater until his eyes stopped stinging. He spotted the massive column of rock fairly quickly and headed deeper towards it. Dokan bodies in general were sturdier than humans' and could tolerate greater variance in pressure; at the same time they had lower oxygen requirements and body temperatures. These features were why dokan could function in the fizz field around the ARK, where the oxygen and temperature were too low for humans to remain conscious long, and they were also why dokan could dive longer and deeper without all the protective gear that humans required. And that was just dokan who were not naturally adapted to the task. The dokan seals could dive every bit as deeply and as long as their fully-finned brethren, and had no need to rise slowly when they were done.

Knuckles preferred to be more cautious. He'd learned, long before he ever heard of 'the bends', that if he dove too deeply on a fishing expedition in the ocean beneath Angel Island, he felt itchy and ill for the next day or so. Tails' explanation about decompression sickness merely gave a name to something he was already aware of, and the solution was one he'd already discovered for himself: when he took a deep dive, he came up slowly, and didn't get the after effects. This had become a lot easier since he'd gotten the air necklace, since he no longer had to base his time surfacing around how much longer he could hold his breath. He took a breath from said air necklace as he reached the top of the column, and began swimming above along its surface.

He was in luck; the spark was not buried as the land-based ones had been. Only a small portion was embedded in the surface, and it slipped free as soon as he touched it. _First time's lucky_, he thought, as he started his slow ascent. _I bet none of the others will be this simple._

Becca was waiting at the back of the boat to help him over the railing, and he handed her the Opal shard as he gave Rex the heading for the next one. She hadn't expected him back so soon. "It was right out on top?" she asked. "It's a miracle it didn't get knocked over the edge by the currents!"

"Actually, it had just the tip embedded in a stone hillock," explained Knuckles. "I think it did that on purpose, so it wouldn't be lost."

"On purpose?" The platypus frowned at him. "You don't actually believe this thing can think?"

Knuckles looked at her thoughtfully. "I know that the Master Emerald has a certain level of awareness of itself and its surroundings. And I know that it can react to them, either when instructed - which itself implies a certain awareness - or on its own. If you consider that 'thinking', then yes, it thinks. If you mean, can it reason, plan ahead and take actions to prevent or correct anticipated problems, then no, it can't. Or the Echidnan Empire would not have been destroyed, and Eggman would never have been able to cardify it."

Becca scoffed, and Knuckles guessed that he'd dropped several points in her estimation, but Rex, to his surprise, agreed with him. "I don't know about the Master Emerald, other than what the old legends tell, but these shards - your 'sparks', if you will - are aware of each other, and one can lead you to the next. And it would be reasonable that if these fragments of stone have that much connection and communication then the Fire Opal itself would have more. An ant is not of itself very intelligent or powerful, but an anthill can achieve some incredible things through communication and cooperation."

Both of the monotremes stared at the cat in surprise. "I can't believe you're buying into this nonsense," protested Becca. "You always said the legends were exaggeration and boasts!"

Knuckles was amazed for another reason. "How do you know that shard is aware of the others?" He himself knew it was possible - when the Master Emerald had been shattered each piece had 'pulled' him towards the next, and the mostly reconstructed stone had shown him where the last pieces were. But while he could sense the Fire Opal shards at short range, he felt no such pull from them, so how did Rex know?

The white cheetah seemed a bit perplexed himself. "I . . . I just do." He looked glumly at the shard lying on the table beside him. "There's one over there," he pointed towards the closest, which Knuckles had been directing them towards, "and others there, there, and there." Without looking up, he pointed in three other directions in which the locator said shards lay. He scowled at the glittering stone. "The closest one is trapped somehow, but it's bigger than the others you've collected. I'm probably going mad; must be sunstroke. Or maybe the stress of being so close to the water."

The platypus grinned, clearly relieved by her friend's return to normal after his unexpected foray into mysticism. "Set a course for the next one, then, and we'll have you back on land that much sooner!"

To Knuckles' dismay, the nearest spark was indeed trapped. A seaquake or something, probably related to the still-active volcano, had shaken the shard and a fair amount of rock off the top of the undersea ridge. Fortunately, a ledge had stopped it from falling too far, but it was completely covered by boulders, smaller rocks and mud. He had to use a combination of Shovel Claw and brute strength, while taking care to be neither trapped under nor dragged down with the heavier stones. Fortunately, even Dr. Eggman would agree that he had brute strength in plenty (although admittedly Eggman would probably stress the 'brute' part), and it was more tedious than difficult. The stones didn't move quite the same way they would in air, and the mud, composed of volcanic ash, tended to churn up so that he couldn't see, which meant he had to keep stopping and waiting for it to settle. If he shifted the wrong stone, he might set off an avalanche himself, and if he was in its way . . . well, that would be bad. So, since he had no wish to find out firsthand exactly how deep the lagoon was, he opted for caution. But at last he caught sight of glittering blue and green lights, and after a few more judicious shoves to a very heavy boulder, he managed to retrieve the opal shard. He took grateful breaths from his air necklace as he meandered his way back to the surface; the sort of work he'd been doing would have been impossible if he'd had to go up every few minutes to breathe.

Becca's cross rebukes at his tardiness were silenced at the sight of the Fire Opal shard. Once out of the deeper water, the red and orange gleams had become visible, and in the open air the piece flashed with every color of the rainbow as Knuckles turned it slowly in his hands. It was much larger that the first three, nearly as large as a beach ball although much more irregular in shape. The platypus stared, but made no attempt to touch it - in fact the echidna thought she was holding her breath. Knuckles was startled when a pair of dark grey gloves firmly removed the stone from his grasp. Rex had an oddly intense look as he twisted the gem in turn for nearly a minute, then suddenly put it with the others.

Then, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, he asked, "So where to now? Since I don't suppose you'll let us dock before the boat sinks or capsizes."

"Um, that way," said Knuckles, blinking. _Maybe finding a guardian won't be as hard as I thought. It looks like the Opal may be choosing its own_. He pondered that thought as the boat made the short trip to the next location, glancing up once towards Thera as something flashed in the sun. After a moment he returned to his own thoughts with a shrug. _Probably the sun reflecting off a window. How aware __**are**__ these stones, I wonder._

Two more sites, two more dives, and sparks number five and six were added to the collection. The play of color across the shards had changed, becoming less like a classic gem opal and more like an actual fire - the colors were now predominantly reds to yellows, with deep undertones of the blues and purples that glow above coals, and the brighter colors tended to flicker sharply, appearing and disappearing even if the viewer remained still, while the darker shades stayed more steady, again like the glow above a bed of coals. The background color had also changed, deepening from the pale blue of the original shard to a blue that matched Sonic's fur in intensity. As Knuckles sat dripping on the deck while Rex returned to Thera, he again noticed a light flash out of the corner of his eye. Looking up, he noted that it not only came from the same area as the first one, but that there was a fairly prosperous-looking house there. Even as he looked, several of the windows flashed again with the combination of the boat's changing angle and the rays of the setting sun reflecting from them.

He'd nearly forgotten his idle observation when Becca said, several minutes later, "Eh, it's that bloke who's been hanging around the bar lately. Wonder what he's up to up there? He strikes me as the sort to think thieving's easier than work." Knuckles saw the small figure of a dokan standing on a terrace between the house he'd noticed and the ocean cliffs, with a motorcycle beside it.

"That's not that purple guy, is it?" he asked. "I saw him in the bar and he reminds me of someone, although I'm not certain who. Or what, maybe."

"Dunno who he is, but I'd keep my gemstones well away from him. And my cash, and anything else of value. Especially these beauties." As she spoke, the small figure mounted its cycle and roared away, the engine noise echoing thinly off the surrounding rocks. "How are we going to protect them, anyway? You don't want to put these in a hotel safe. Can you get them up to your island, maybe?"

"They belong here!" said Rex, sharply. "They belong on Calliste and nowhere else!"

"Exactly," agreed Knuckles. He was startled by the pantherine's vehemence, but realized he'd act similarly himself if someone else suggested moving the Master Emerald. Although he'd carried it with him on several occasions - abruptly he wondered if the Master Emerald itself had suggested the idea at those times. He yanked his thoughts back to the matter at hand. "My plan was to take these on down the tunnels to the Demon. We'll ask him to hide them while we gather the rest. That way we can also keep our agreement to show Rex the Demon."

Becca considered, agreed . . . and ordered Knuckles to jump overboard. To his startled demand for an explanation she pointed out that: 1. They could not carry the Fire Opal shards openly through the streets to the tunnels; 2. They had nothing on board in which they could put them; 3. Anything other than a mining sack would arouse interest in anyone who saw them entering the tunnel; and 4. If she dove over the edge she'd get her clothes all wet. Therefore, Knuckles was the obvious person to go, now, while they were passing the hotel on shore, so that he could pick up his bag and meet them when they docked.

Knuckles opened and closed his mouth a few times, then headed over the edge. She had a point, and he couldn't think of a good counter argument. He stroked quickly to the low dock that belonged to the hotel and jogged barefoot up the steps. The hot sun had dried his fur by the time he reached the entrance, and he'd left his shoes and socks on the boat, so he didn't have to worry about tracking water across the floor. He grabbed his sack - and the helmet and badge - and headed back out.

He arrived at the dock at about the same time as the platypus got the lines snubbed to the dock. He stepped carefully over the side of the boat and placed the shards - which were now on the deck by Rex's feet, rather than on the table in plain view - carefully into the sack. The biggest was larger than the mouth of the sack, though. Knuckles glanced around, looking for something to wrap it in or cover it with. Then Rex dropped the pen he was filling out his log with and bent down, placing one gray-gloved hand on the shard. Somehow it became smaller without really changing size. Knuckles couldn't explain it exactly, but it now fit into the sack, and the sack didn't seem overly full, even though when he looked into the sack, the shard was visibly too big to fit. "A bonfire is very large," murmured Rex, as he finished the log and closed it, "but how big is the actual fire itself?" Knuckles blinked up at the pantherine, then opted to ignore the matter as he ignored other uncomprehensible actions of the Master and Chaos Emeralds. Magic was magic, after all, and by definition inexplicable. Slinging the sack over his shoulder, he stepped back onto the dock and the three dokan headed for the tunnels.


	17. Did You Ever Have the Feeling ?

16. Did You Ever Have the Feeling . . . ?

Knuckles woke up the next morning alone in his hotel room. That hadn't been the original plan; Rex had been supposed to share his room since there were two beds, but the pantherine's first sight of the Demon had changed things dramatically.

Knuckles gazed broodingly at the unused bed beside him as he pulled on his shoes and socks, and changed his gloves_. I've never seen anything like that before; it was almost like Rex turned into somebody else. And I think it's __**most **__unfair that Rex gets to talk with his Chaos when Tikal and I and Lady Mara have to guess at what ours are thinking, even though we've been at it longer._

It wasn't _actually _talking, but the Demon was able to communicate telepathically with its Guardian - and there was no doubt anymore that Rex was the Guardian of the Fire Opal, whether he wanted to be or not. Apparently, that was why the guardianship had lapsed; the ability to 'hear' the fire Chaos was an occasional trait of the original cheetahs who had lived on Calliste, a name that meant 'most beautiful'. When the volcano exploded, everyone on the island had been killed, and every boat within several hours' sail had been scorched and capsized. Only a few of the inhabitants, including the then-Guardian - who had tried futilely to warn the leaders, then fled with the Demon and as many black chao as he could fit on the boat - had survived, on the comparative safety of the mainland. Nearby islands, especially south- and east-ward, had been scorched by the incredible blast, and flooded by the tsunamis triggered by the eruption. Even the mainland coast was battered by massive waves and some ash, though worst of the ash and rock falls occurred again south and east of the volcano. By the time it was eventually resettled, it had been given a new name, Thera, meaning fear. The cheetahs had been reduced to a scant handful of sailors, nearly all male, and a couple of families living on the mainland, because the majority of the spotted dokan had lived on Calliste and the islands south and east of it. The remnant had to intermarry with other feline dokan to survive at all, and the resultant dilution of the bloodlines had also diluted the telepathic abilities. Never very common, they became nearly unheard of, and for several generations there was only one new candidate located in a Guardian's lifetime. Then came the day the last Guardian died, having found no successor. For several years, the inhabitants of Thera and the smaller isle of Santorini continued to present their children to the Demon as usual, but as years passed with no sign of the required telepathic abilities the tradition lapsed and the creature itself faded into myth. Later, when the gems were discovered, the early miners attacked the black chao in their gardens, where the creatures had hoarded small piles of pretty gems, and the Demon had turned against dokan and humans completely.

All of this the Demon had explained to Rex, and the cheetah had relayed to Knuckles and Becca. The black chao had spirited away the Fire Opal's shards, hiding them somewhere, and Rex had settled down to spend the night in the Demon's garden, learning to his scholarly heart's content. Becca and Knuckles found themselves ignored and forgotten as the white king communed with the fire Chaos, and eventually returned to the town of Thera for dinner. Once they left the cavern, Knuckles felt his skin prickling, as if an enemy were near, but could see nothing untoward.

Now he got up, and ran through a brief exercise routine, feeling the pull of muscles he'd overused swimming the day before. Then he jogged down to the restaurant-bar to meet up with the platypus. To his surprise, Rex was there as well, so they breakfasted together and headed for the docks.

Today Rex turned the boat towards the northern mouth of the lagoon. He didn't ask for directions; he clearly knew exactly where he was going. Knuckles took out the locator anyway, absently noting that they were heading directly for a cluster of power sources but mainly looking at the map information. The ocean here was VERY shallow, six hundred to eight hundred feet deep, versus the lagoon's thirteen hundred. Becca had rented some scuba gear, and was planning to dive with him. Knuckles wasn't certain if the shards would respond to her, since she wasn't a Guardian of any of the King stones, but the look in her eye had dissuaded him from arguing. He hadn't forgotten the pickax quivering in the barstool, and had no wish to encourage her to fling one at him. _If the stones object, then she won't be able to find them, and while she won't be happy she can't blame Rex or me for that. Well, she can't __**fairly**__ blame us. I hope she'll realize that._

Rex throttled back the motor and the boat glided to an approximate halt above the cluster of power points. Knuckles could faintly feel the shards below, so he strapped the locator to Becca's wrist and showed her how to use it. The platypus hopped neatly over the side and dove. Knuckles was preparing to do the same when Rex spoke to him. "Don't worry about her. I've told the shards to react to her as a favored one. She'll be able to find and recover them the same as you can."

Knuckles looked at the cheetah in surprise. "How come you can talk to them like that? I can sort of get an impression of how the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds, um, feel, but I can't talk to them. And I don't think I could tell them to treat someone else as me."

The pale blue eyes regarded him cooly. "In part, it is because the cheetahs never liked going into the water, even though we sailed and fished the sea. We lived with humans and seals who attended to duties that required swimming or diving. Therefore, it was necessary on occasion to delegate one of them to do things that the Guardian could not. The element of fire is inimical to water, after all, so it is not surprising that the Guardians should echo the view.

"Also, as the three sets of stones are linked to elements, so are they also linked to less tangible features. The Fire Opal represents not only fire but the power of the mind; thus the telepathic nature of the Guardian and the Chaos. It is no coincidence that I, a scholar, am the new Guardian; historically the Guardians of these Opals have always been learned. Your Chaos Emeralds, on the other hand, reflect not only the shifting essence of water, but the fluid nature of emotions and the heart, resulting in Guardians - both dokan and Chaos - that tend to be temperamental and of a more emotional, rather than logical, outlook. No offense."

Knuckles was too fascinated by this information to be offended. And he could hardly argue the point - it was all too true that he let his temper and emotions think for him at times._ But then . . . _"What about the Chronos Rock?" he asked. "Lady Marahuté is certainly intelligent, and the air Chaos seemed rather angry when Jet and Storm attacked it. Do the Time Stones control both?"

"Ah, but as you said yourself, what the Angel actually affected was the physical form. It made Jet's body old, without changing his mind, and simply suspended time for several of the others. I suspect the Lady Marahuté was a formidable fighter when she was younger, and even now she has bodyguards to physically protect what she deems necessary. The Chronos Rock keeps in its purview space-time and gravity, which affect the physical world, not the mental or emotional ones."

"Wow." Knuckles was struggling to get his mind around the information. It wasn't that he didn't understand it, or that it didn't make sense, it was just a lot to absorb at once. "Ah, I think I'd better go look for sparks before Becca gets them all," he said finally._ I'll think about it later. It's going to take a __**lot **__of thinking._

The cheetah laughed - but kindly - and Knuckles dove over the rail, feeling like he was escaping. As he stroked downwards he realized that the changes he'd noticed in Rex after introducing him to the Demon were still in evidence. Although the white dokan had been both intelligent and educated before, the gloominess was gone, making him a much more pleasant person to get along with. _Perhaps it has something to do with having found his calling_, speculated the echidna. _After all, if he can communicate mentally with the Demon and the Fire Opal, perhaps he's always had the feeling that something was wrong, without ever knowing exactly what. I remember how I felt when the Master Emerald was shattered, and I knew what had happened to it and why - and what 'it' was. If Rex was picking up vibes from a broken King stone he didn't know existed, and the angst of a Chaos whose home was being invaded daily and whose children were in constant danger, it's no wonder he'd be always feeling like disaster was looming. Aha!_

He interrupted his musings long enough to shift several cubic feet of sand, and uncovered a mid-sized shard of the Fire Opal. _The water is beautifully clear here. And the sand isn't as muddy, I wonder why._ He could just make out the form of the platypus searching; line of sight under water was much shorter than in the air. He considered looking for another while he was under, but took his find back up to the boat instead. He surfaced just long enough to hand it to the cheetah, then dove back down. _Good thing we remembered to bring a sack today._

_The Chaos Emeralds represent emotions. _That certainly made sense. They had long since figured out that the Chaos Emeralds fed on emotions: the anger and sheer rage of Chaos at the Empire's troops, the terror of those same troops as they faced a water creature suddenly swelled to monstrous power and proportions - purely because of the energy generated by its fury. And then sustained by both fury and fear. That scene from three thousand years ago had been repeated when Eggman freed Chaos, only then it had fed on a human city's fear. In contrast, Sonic had told Knuckles how as Super Sonic he could feel the faith and hope of those same people, who trusted him and believed that he could save them from Perfect Chaos, as the Chaos Emeralds took in those emotions as well and channeled them into something purer and positive. Again, when the ARK had been plunging towards the Earth, there had been hope enough from around the world to enable two Super hedgehogs to Chaos control the massive space colony back into its proper orbit. And there too, the Biolizard's animal anger and fear had given it power beyond its own abilities. _Although some of its abilities were directly linked to Chaos energy, as were Shadow's, so that might not be the same thing. But then what is Chaos energy? The Chronos Rock and Time Stones, as their names imply, deal in time; the Fire and Sol Opals deal in fire and psychic powers, as demonstrated by Blaze's pyrokinetic abilities. Is Chaos energy then simply another name for emotions?_

He didn't know. He doubted anyone knew for certain, although Tikal had said something once about the Chaos Emeralds feeding on and replenishing life energy as well as emotional energy. _Perhaps that's another triad then, mineral for the Chronos Rock, which affects and alters the physical world, plants for the Master Emerald, which feeds on life and emotions, and animals for the Fire Opal? _He snorted a stream of bubbles as he started excavating another spark. _I think I'm thinking too much._

He shook the unanswerable thoughts to the back of his mind and concentrated on his search for the Opal shards. When the area was clear, the two divers hauled themselves back up onto the boat and ate a picnic lunch while Rex piloted the boat to a new location and then joined them.

"Why are they all clumped together?" asked Becca, consulting the locator. "The ones in the lagoon were all scattered."

"Because of the currents," replied the cheetah. "The shards in the lagoon could lodge themselves in the rocks where they fell and avoid being lost forever in the deeper trenches. Out here there is only sand for the sparks to cling to, so they are at the mercy of the tides and tend to get washed into slight depressions or the edges of the water flow.

"Is something wrong, Knuckles?"

The echidna was looking around uneasily. "I . . . it's probably nothing, but I keep feeling like someone's watching us." There were plenty of other boats in view, fishing and diving vessels, but none were nearby. In fact, the land was closer than most of the other boats. But still the echidna couldn't shake the feel of unfriendly eyes.

"Hmm," said the charcoal-and-white dokan thoughtfully, shading his eyes with one hand while looking around himself, "I don't think anyone's near enough to see anything of what we're doing, and there's no reason for anyone to think they need to watch us. There are plenty of boats out here looking for fish or artifacts. Perhaps you're nervous because you know how valuable our 'catch' is?"

"Maybe," said Knuckles. He didn't really think that was the case, but he also didn't have any reason other than a vague foreboding to think they _were_ being watched. He let the matter drop, but made a mental note to be watchful.

That evening, Becca guided them to a little-known tunnel entrance that opened off a small cove, and they took the sparks in directly, without having to carry the bags through town. They then docked at the pier and got off, casually carrying the ice chest that had contained their lunch and a string of fish that Knuckles had caught as evidence of their day's accomplishments. There was a small crowd gathered in front of the Fire-Demon Opal building, hiding what sounded like three people yelling. Knuckles and Becca craned their necks but couldn't see past the crowd; Rex merely found a spot clear of human backs and looked over the heads of the gathered dokan. "Two humans and a purple weasel, it looks like," he reported.

Knuckles and Becca exchanged a glance. Knuckles looked around and spotted a motorcycle parked halfway down the block, conspicuous among the bicycles most of the islanders used. Becca followed his nod, and asked, "This weasel, he's wearing a black hat and gunbelt, mate?"

The pale blue eyes met her gold ones. "You know him?"

"We've seen him around. And me and Knux both figure him for a thief. What's he saying they've undervalued? Can you see?" For that was the gist of the argument, two voices vehemently denying charges by the third that they had cheated him.

"Looks like a largeish opal, but I can't see enough to tell quality, of course. Shall we go on to supper while the crowds have their attention elsewhere?" Knuckles' stomach agreed, loudly, so the group went off with the echidna's ears feeling hot and the other two laughing.

Two more days saw all of the shards collected from the ocean floor, leaving only the three near the active remnant of the volcano in the lagoon. So on the morning of the fourth day they set out in that direction. The last three shards turned out to be rather anticlimactic, actually, but Knuckles' sense of being watched was stronger than ever. There were people about on the shore, some islanders working who waved at the boat and some tourists pointed and took pictures, but the echidna was certain that none of those were the source of his unease. He just didn't know what was. "'Struth!" declared Becca finally. "I'm glad that's the last, Knuckles. You're as jumpy as a lamb in a dingo's den!"

Knuckles was glad as well, but the feeling was worse than before. "Listen," he said suddenly. "Help me stuff the trash from lunch in this sack and drop me off at the dock, then set out like you're headed for Santorini. Once I'm out of sight, you can loop around and unload at that we've been using, but . . . . Something's up, and whatever it is is going to happen tonight."

Rex eyed him closely, then agreed and began transferring the sparks into the cooler and the lunch trash into the gem sack. Becca declared he was crazy, but crouched so that her body blocked what Rex was doing from shore and acted like she was stuffing things in the sack as well. Knuckles imitated her, and was relieved when they cast off again safely after dropping him on the dock. With the sack slung over his shoulder, he set off as jauntily as he could manage, striding toward the hotel as if he'd just struck it rich. Halfway there, the sunset abruptly went black.


	18. A Use For Loose Hairs

17. A Use for Loose Hairs

It was very dark, and several of Eggman's robots were trying to beat their way out of his skull. Unable to tell if his eyes were open or shut in the utter blackness, Knuckles smothered a groan and tried to sit up and reach for his throbbing skull. A light flashed on, blinding him as it glared directly into his eyes, even as he realized that his hands were tied behind his back. As he squinted painfully, trying to make out who was behind the light, a voice came out of the darkness.

"It was a good trick, that bag of trash; you certainly fooled me. Unfortunately, I don't like being fooled. So what _did_ you do with the pretty gems you've been diving for? I've been watching you all week, and I know you've been hiding them in these tunnels somewhere." There was a sharp metallic click, and the muzzle of a gun was advanced far enough into the beam of light for him to see and recognize it. "I know you're pretty isolated up on that island of yours, but I'm sure you know what this is. And I'm sure you wish to keep your various limbs functional, so I'd advise you to tell me where the opals are. I'll even be generous enough to split them with you; half of _that _treasure will more than equal what I'd get from what I'd planned to steal."

"They aren't mine to split," said Knuckles. The voice was familiar, but his head was pounding so hard he couldn't think why. Although he was pretty certain who was on the other end of the gun and flashlight. "And I don't know where they are anyway, someone else hid them. So, since I can't tell you what I don't know, and if you kill me I can't tell you anything at all, why don't you let me go and we'll forget about it."

The other snorted. "Let you go so you can beat me up, you mean? Or report me to the authorities? No thanks, but I prefer to keep my . . . business transactions more private. You don't know who I am, only who you guess. And I know you wouldn't let me walk - you were annoyingly persistent the last time our paths crossed, and from what I've read you've only gotten more so. So no, I don't think I'll be letting you go. And killing you would be murder, which I don't do gratis. Hmm, perhaps I'll let you think it over in the dark, while I locate your friends from the boat. Maybe they'll be more helpful. If not . . . well, you don't need two functional arms or legs to answer questions. Of course, you might be able to free yourself, but good luck finding your way out in the dark. You'd do much better to tell me where the shards are and pocket your half of the split . . . ." There was a long pause, then the gun retreated back into the darkness behind the light. "No? Your loss, then." Holding the light steady on the echidna's eyes, the other began to back away.

Knuckles growled and struggled against his bonds. They weren't as strong as he'd feared, but they were strong enough that he couldn't simply snap them and be done. He'd be able to get loose but not before the stranger was gone, which was probably by design. The light suddenly vanished and he heard the echoes of footsteps running down a tunnel. His bonds broke just as his eyes adjusted, showing him the faintest hint of light coming from a tunnel mouth across the cave. He surged to his feet - and crashed to his knees as the ceiling slammed down on his head.

After an indeterminate but pain-filled period of time and some cautious feeling of the area around him, he figured out what had happened. He had been placed in a hollow off of a larger cave, so that while the main cave ceiling was tall enough for his captor to stand upright, where Knuckles was actually lying it was only about three feet high. And since Knuckles was slightly more than three feet tall, it made for a powerful blow when he tried to jump up. By the time he'd gotten things sorted out and was standing cautiously in the taller area of the cave, even the faint light was gone. But that wasn't a problem. He crouched carefully - he was still dizzy from the blows to his head, and his stomach was rebelling as well, for some reason - and felt at his right shoe. The metal plate on top was hinged, but if the villain had assumed it was mere decoration . . . . Yes. He opened what was really a tiny box and pulled out an even tinier flashlight. It was the sort of thing one might attach to a keychain, for help in finding a keyhole in the dark. However, for the sensitive eyes of the echidna, it was all he needed.

He twisted the cap to turn it on, then held it up, pointing it at the ceiling. The roof here turned out to be laced with both opal patches and obsidian, which reflected the light in bright glints or pale patches. The tunnel mouth was a darker area, and the only exit from the cave, so the echidna moved cautiously down it.

He hadn't gone far before he came to a complicated fork, with about five passages in addition to the one he was in. "Damn!" he muttered. He searched the walls for the trail signs the miners used, or an indication of how his kidnapper was finding his way, but found nothing. He crouched and slid a hand across the dry stone floor, bare of ash or sand that might hold tracks. He was no hound, to follow a scent trail through the darkness; he needed a visible spoor of some sort. He squinted closer in the dim light, hoping vainly that his captor might have stepped in mud, or oil, or . . . _How about wet paint, while I'm dreaming_, he thought sourly. _Wait, what's that?_ He leaned closer, at the same time holding the tiny light higher so that the light could reflect off the ceiling better while he inspected the floor. And then he started to laugh, even though it made his head throb. What he had found was a sparse trail of red hairs - his own hairs. With all the swimming he'd been doing, the loose hairs had been sticking to the live ones, and since he hadn't been taking time to really scrub and curry himself - after a day of repeated dives he was tired enough of water that he barely rinsed the salt out of his fur - the dead hairs had built up in his coat. The floor of the tunnel was rough enough that it had combed out a trail of the scarlet hairs; a trail that he doubted even a villain who was furry himself would think to look for, which meant it was unlikely to have been rubbed out farther down the line. Slowly the echidna began to follow the trail through the pitch black tunnel.

It was a difficult task. He had to walk half-crouched so he could see the floor, straining even _his_ sensitive eyes to pick out the short red hairs on the black floor, while at the same time stretching the arm holding the flashlight as high in the air as he could reach. Waddling along in this awkward position soon resulted in little pains shooting up his neck and stabbing at his knees, and his arm was at the same time painful and numb, in addition to his headache and queasy stomach. Pointing the light at the floor actually made it harder to see the hairs in the glare of the tiny light, and when he raised it again he was unable to see anything until his eyes readjusted. He tried switching arms, but each time the pain-free interval got shorter, until finally he gave it up for a bit and sat down with his back to the wall, switching the flashlight off.

He'd seen briefly, before turning out the light, that he was coming into a pillared cave, where stalactites and stalagmites had grown together to form columns. _Although actually, since this is a volcanic cave, that's probably not the answer; I wonder how else you get columnar structures in a cave? _Most of the Angel Island caves were limestone, where stalactites and other water-shaped structures were common. _Why do columns remind me of that purple guy? He's got to be the one who kidnaped me, and he clearly knows who I am. Columns, a purple weasel . . . and a gun. The gun's important, I think. A treasure hunter? Nah, none of the ones I know carry a gun. Not even Rouge, although she's a spy as well as a treasure hunter, AND a gem thief. Hmm, this guy made me think 'trouble' as soon as I spotted him, but Becca thought 'thief'. A thief packing a gun. Who knows about me. Oh! _"Ouch!" He hissed as he curled forward - he'd sat up straight as memory came and smacked his head for the third time today, this time against the wall behind him. But he knew who the weasel was now; actually a weasel-wolf, he called himself Fang but was also known as Nack. He was a thief and a bounty hunter. Unlike Rouge, who stole gems she thought were beautiful to add to her personal collection, Fang was purely a mercenary type: he stole whatever he thought would bring the most money on resale, whether private contract or on the black market. He'd been after the Chaos Emeralds one time at the same time as Doctor Eggman and Sonic and Tails had been chasing around after them, and Knuckles hadn't quite caught up with him at that point. He'd seen the weasel-wolf from a distance a few times, and heard about him later from Sonic and Rouge, but since their paths hadn't crossed since, he'd sort of forgotten about him. _Note to self: do not forget about potential enemies in the future. The columns remind me of him because I saw him among the columns of Marble Gardens that time. He must have been planning to steal some of the opals mined here until he spotted the sparks, and now he's decided that the Fire Emerald shards will net a tidy profit if he sells them. Well he's probably right about the profit, but we'll just have to make certain the selling part never gets achieved._

Sighing, Knuckles got up and settled himself into his odd posture again, flashlight up, head down. At the next corner, where some obsidian patches were protruding through the lava rock, he found a few shreds of hemp, sliced from a rope by the black volcanic glass. _Ah, that answers how Fang found his way out; but I wonder how he found his way here in the first place. This place is a maze!_ But the red hairs went on, and their original owner continued to follow them until he noticed a dim light up a side corridor. Frowning he looked up the new tunnel and back down at the hairs. Then he turned the flashlight off again. The light was pale silver, and very faint. If the tunnels hadn't been completely lightless, he'd never have noticed it. He took a couple of deep breaths and thought he detected a slight freshening of the air. With a last glance back at the (now invisible) hair trail, he made a decision and started up the new tunnel towards the light.

It quickly became clear that the air was fresher ahead of him, and the light grew steadily stronger, although it remained dim. Eventually, though, the fresh scent was joined by the familiar scent of growing things, the perfume of fruit trees in bloom, and the slightly alcoholic scent of overripe fruit. He rounded a last bend and stepped into a moonlit chao garden.

Two black imps and a dark red chao with the same slanted eyes and spiky bobble were tending the plants with tiny hoes and a chao-sized watering can. Startled by the echidna's sudden appearance, they looked up. To his relief they didn't flee, although they did keep glancing warily at him as they went about their business. Knuckles moved slowly around the edge of the garden away from them, and his deliberate motions seemed to reassure the creatures. He carefully picked a square fruit and sat down to nibble at it, hoping to settle his stomach. It wasn't his favorite; the odd, cube-shaped fruits were too sweet and too bland at the same time, but the tarter triangle fruit he preferred was growing directly above where the chao were working. He wondered if there was some way to counter their fears. The ones on Angel Island weren't afraid of much, in fact they tended to flock around new people. (He smirked at the sudden recollection of Shadow besieged, with chao hugging his knees and several fluttering around his head, petting his striped quills. The black hedgehog had found several dozen of them in one of Eggman's castles, and although it had been Tails and Cream who returned them, they seemed to consider Shadow their savior.) Cream's favorite companion Cheese loved everyone it met. Even the ones that Eggman had kidnaped had shown no ill effects; apparently the scientist had taken good care of them except for penning them up in his castle. As for the 'Dancing Clouds' that Lady Marahuté tended, they certainly had no fear of people - but then, Knuckles wasn't sure how many people they saw outside of the Lady and the Angel. These imps, though, had been terrified when they'd first seen him and Becca, and there were apparently grounds enough for their fear that the Demon had come out boiling mad, ready to defend them. _The miners do see them occasionally still. I wonder how many of them attack the chao, thinking the 'imps' are dangerous?_ That seemed the most probable reason, sorry as it was. _People have a nasty habit of attacking before there's clear reason to, or any reason to. Our own history is proof enough of that, and other dokan besides the echidnas have done similar things, as have the humans._ The scarlet echidna sighed and pressed his fingers carefully against the side of his head, trying to block off the pain. _I hope Rex can help make peace, somehow. I wonder what the Demon would think about the 'imps' being part of a tourist attraction? Rex could have the bolder ones just play in a garden where people could watch them - or even on camera - and once people know about them maybe the miners won't be as likely to kill them._

He started and looked up as something cold and damp touched the top of his head. The dark-crimson chao flinched back, then hesitantly held out a spongy moss that had been soaked in water. Knuckles recognized it a as type that grew on some of the trees in the Angel Island gardens, that had healing properties. "Thank you little one," he said softly, holding out a hand. The chao shoved the moss into his hand and skittered back to watch from a safe distance.

Knuckles smiled at it as he gingerly pressed the gift against his aching head. After a few minutes he sighed with relief as the pain eased. Looking back at the chao, he realized he now had an audience. There were now a half-dozen black imps, plus the dark red, a deep grey, and a pair of 'normal' toddlers, whose pale blue coloring and round eyes stood out among the others. Although actually, the echidna realized that one of the toddlers was much darker than the other, although the eyes and bobble retained the round shape of the water chao. "Could one of you tell the Demon where I am, maybe?" he asked them.

His voice caused a stir and a flurry of muttered discussions. He smiled to himself. They might have learned timidity, but their curiosity and personalities were intact. Two black imps with exaggerated wings pulled out of the crowd and flew up through the hole that allowed light and air in to the garden. Several of the others dispersed, but many sat back down and seemed prepared to watch their strange guest all night. "I hate to disappoint you guys, but I'm going to sleep," the echidna told them. He lay down carefully, lest he restart the pounding in his head, but the moss seemed to have worked its usual magic. Pity it couldn't help his stomach, which was even more uncomfortable after eating the fruit. He heard more chao footsteps, and opened one eye as he felt a vine-woven blanket being pulled across his shoulder. It was too small, of course, being chao-sized, but a second was being draped over his feet, and there were three more holding blankets and awaiting their turn. He closed his eye again and fell quickly into sleep.

He was partly roused from a dream of wandering through endless columned hallways after a purple motorcycle by the sound of voices, but his head had resumed pounding like a hammered anvil so he fought against waking up. He was dimly aware that the light was brighter and pinker, then something cool touched his sore head and as the pain eased he drifted back into sleep. This time he didn't dream.

When he woke up, he found himself in the Demon's garden, which he was fairly certain was not the one he'd been in the night before. And his head felt a lot better; in fact, it didn't hurt at all until he touched where he'd whacked it on the ceiling. He was a bit alarmed to feel a thick scab there, but realized that it was a bit late to panic about it now. He sat up and rubbed his face, feeling rather fuzzy-minded, considering he'd apparently gotten a good night's sleep after all. Or maybe a good day's sleep; it looked like the sun was setting.

"Knuckles! How're you feeling?" Becca popped suddenly into view around some bushes. "Blimey, mate! Didn't anyone ever tell you not to go to sleep when you've got concussion?"

Knuckles blinked at the platypus. "What's concussion? I got hit on the head, but I've done that before." He frowned as he realized how hungry he was. "I'm starving!"

"No wonder, you've been asleep for two days." Rex came around the bushes as well, carrying a plate of eggs and bacon. "Here. She's right, you know. You had two or three good goose-eggs on your head, including the one you scraped, and I strongly suspect you were concussed. That means you bruised your brain against the inside of your skull as well as bruising he outside of your head," he added.

"Oh." Knuckles took the plate and began eating as fast as he could. "I don't know about that, but I was awfully dizzy. Are all the Opal shards safe? I got mugged by a thief who said he was coming after you when I refused to tell him where they were."

Both of his companions grinned, but Becca spoke first. "Aren't any shards for him to steal anymore. It was incredible Knux, you should have seen it! The Demon had the imps bring out all the shards we'd already collected to put with the last set, and then it and Rex held their hands out over the heap and there was this really weird light and, foof! All of a sudden the heap of shards were gone and there was just this huge opal, only it's not an opal, quite. It's like it's got real fire inside it, instead of just color refractions, and it can make pictures with the fire, just like the Demon can, only most of the time it's just sort of sparking in there like an opal. Only not. Oh, you've got to see it!" He nearly dropped his plate as the platypus grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet and after her, down a tunnel he'd hadn't been through before. Rex came behind, clearly amused by the platypus' enthusiasm.


	19. The Next Problem

18. The Next Problem

The shrine on Angel island had been built by the echidnas of large, cut blocks of stone. The Chronos Rock's shrine in the valley of the Dancing Clouds had been made of carved timbers, although Knuckles wasn't certain who had done the carving. In contrast, this shrine appeared to have been made by the volcano itself, with no one's intervention.

Seven tall spires of glassy obsidian with embedded crystals ringed the central altar. The crystals glowed with an inner light, which brightened and dimmed with the flickering inconstancy of flame. Each pillar bore only one color of crystals, and Knuckles quickly noted that the color of each Chaos Emerald was represented. Within the ring of pillars was a deep, circular ditch, with a bridge at each cardinal direction arching over the moat to the central island that bore the altar. The altar too was of obsidian: smooth, glassy black, and with lethally sharp edges. It was septagonal in shape, each corner pointing to a pillar. The floor of the island was smooth basalt with inset crystals, but these crystals glowed with all the colors on the outer pillars and more. As Becca reached the low ridge of stone that marked the boundaries of the unroofed shrine, she slowed, and released the echidna's hand. Knuckles stepped cautiously onto the nearest stone bridge, which had no railings. Peeking over the side, he saw the sullen glow of lava far below. Heat rose with palpable force, and he realized that this shrine was quite capable of protecting itself. He crossed quickly over to the island and stopped, staring at the massive gem before him.

He had noticed how the shards' background color had deepened as he and Becca had collected more of them. The Fire Opal was black, black as the tunnels below the volcano, with ripples and flashes of brilliant reds, oranges and yellows burning unceasingly throughout its depths. A quieter, steadier glow of greens through blues to purples surged like a tide amid and around the brighter colors. _Inspiration_, he thought, _and reason; the one striking like lightning and the other slower but more certain._ Another reason, perhaps, that this stone was linked with mental abilities, although he supposed a different interpretation might represent the emotions with the briefer colors and thought in general with the steady ones. Of course that contradicted the theory that the Chaos Emeralds represented emotions. He grimaced and shook his head. _Leave the theories to Rex and the scholars, _he scolded himself, _my job is to find these stones and protect my own._

The gem itself was about the same mass as the Master Emerald, but shaped differently and smoothly round instead of faceted. Seen from the top, it was circular, with a slightly domed surface, raised above a rim that was itself slightly arched. The bottom was truncated compared to the Master Emerald, actually a mirror image of the top surface, and again curved into the smooth sides without the straight angles of a facet. Actually, from the side it looked rather like a flying saucer. _Or_, the echidna reflected, _an unfaceted version of the Sol Emeralds' cut. I wonder if the associated stones look like the Sol Emeralds, or if they're opals as well._ That was when he realized something was missing. "You didn't call the Sol Emeralds back?" he asked, turning to Rex, who had joined him in the shrine.

"Sol Opals," the feline corrected quietly. "And apparently they can't simply be called back, because the energy was sent elsewhere when they were destroyed. The Fire Opal can reform the physical structures from the energy that they truly are, but it needs the energy itself, first."

"Sent elsewhere? Where? And how are we supposed to bring energy anywhere if it doesn't have a physical form?" Knuckles was confused and disappointed. He'd thought the whole point was to pair each king stone with its Chaos and then the associated power stones would return. No one had said anything about him then having to hunt for blobs of intangible energy. _Maybe Tails can help_, he thought despondently.

But Rex seemed actually fairly positive about the situation. "They _have_ a physical form. All the power stones are linked across the dimensions; that is why the intrusion of the Sol Emeralds and the extra-dimensional Time Stones unbalanced things: they came here, where there was no functional Fire Opal or Chronos Rock to restrain them and created an energy deficit by absorbing power from this world and sending it elsewhere. Yet because of this dimensional linking, the power of our destroyed stones was not lost, but subsumed into the aligned stones across the dimensions; and thus it must be returned by them, to be resegregated into this dimension's discrete Sol Opals and Time Stones."

"Oh." Knuckles had gotten lost somewhere in the midst of that explanation. He was not at all certain what the white pantherine was talking about. _Why do scholars have to use such long words?_ It was some comfort that Becca looked even more lost than he felt.

Rex gave him an encouraging smile. "Try this, then: a Sol Opal holds power like a glass holds water. When the glass was broken, the water fell into another glass in the basement. To refill our glass, we have to bring the other glass up here to get the water back–"

"Only the glasses are made of ice," interrupted Knuckles, with a flash of intuition, "and you're going to freeze the outer part of the water to make the new glasses." He thought he had it, at least enough to be going on with.

"Exactly," Rex seemed pleased at his answer.

"And how do we do that exactly? I can't just open a door and step into another dimension," the echidna pointed out. Even as he spoke it occurred to him that that wasn't precisely true; with the aid of the energy in the gold rings that turned up most places on the planet, one could step through into the pocket dimensions where the Chaos Emeralds hid at times. Whether he could use that energy to get to Blaze's dimension he had no idea, and he didn't relish the thought of trying to convince her to pack up the Sol Emeralds and bring them to Earth. _I wonder if Shadow would be interested in going. This should be right up his alley - it's not too different from Chaos Control, I wouldn't think._

Just then he noticed that the flames in the Fire Opal had changed. Where before the pattern had been random except for the relative speeds of the different colors, there was now a definite image appearing. The colors swirled and spun, giving the impression of a tornado, then a red-gold fox silhouette with double tails emerged, alongside the blue image of a hedgehog. A violet cat - much slimmer than Big - stood facing them, with seven brilliant points of light circling around it, each point a different color. The storm turned sideways, forming a tunnel, and the fox and hedgehog silhouettes zoomed into closeup as the feline image faded away. Then a constellation of multihued glimmers coalesced into the Fire Opal, and a red echidna form pushed the hedgehog up to it. The hedgehog dodged away, but the echidna shape kept bringing it back. After several repetitions of that theme, the silhouettes writhed and became the gem's internal flames again, but Knuckles had the distinct impression that the gem was giving him an expectant look. Or something. _Well, no question about what it wants me to do. Although I don't see how bringing Sonic here is going to help with the Sol Emeralds._ He shrugged mentally._ Ah well, that's not my problem; I only have to get Sonic here. That, I can manage. I think._

Rex was also giving him an expectant look, and he had a face to look with. He cocked his head, ears forward. "Can you do it?"

"No problem," said the echidna, confidently. "I'll need to go back up to Angel Island, though; that's where my radio is. I'll need to check with Tails on where Sonic is at the moment."

He hoped the little fox would know. Tails and Amy had eventually managed to impress on Sonic the importance of telling people where he was going 'in case of emergency' - which to them meant an emergency that happened to Sonic, and to Sonic meant an emergency that they needed him to come fix. The problem was, the blue hedgehog tended to get sidetracked, or lost, or just change his mind, so he rarely stayed at his intended destination and sometimes failed to get there in the first place. But at least it would be a place to start.

Becca gave him her cell phone number, to pass on to Tails so the echidna wouldn't be stuck by the radio until the fox cub called back. At Rex's request, the Demon helpfully showed Knuckles through a tunnel that opened out on a high cliff. From there it was not difficult to tack back and forth across the midday thermals to get to Angel Island. He jogged by the shrine and waved at Tikal, but continued on into his cave. By the time he'd gotten the radio running, she'd joined him, commenting, "Chaos is watching the shrine. Welcome back."

He nodded at her, just as Tails came on. Quickly he explained to the fox cub that he needed to know where Sonic was. Tails wasn't sure. "I know he was supposed to be checking out the new flicky colony on South Island," the fox said doubtfully, "but Amy went there to check up on her friend - the one that used to be Gamma the robot, you know - and she said he hadn't shown up. I think Shadow saw him last weekend though. He just got back from a mission; he won't tell us what it was, but maybe he can tell me where he saw Sonic."

"Could you check for me?" asked Knuckles. "I'd appreciate it, Tails; this is really important."

"Do you need to just talk to him, or do I need to give him a message, or what?"

"Actually, I need him to come to Thera," answered Knuckles. "I . . . have a task, you know, and now it turns out I need Sonic's help."

"Oh. Is it okay if I come too? I can fly him out in the Tornado; that'd be the fastest way to get there, since it's an island. I've never been to Thera."

"Sure, no problem. If you can find him and get him out here, I'll show you the Fire Opal, and introduce you to the Demon," Knuckles said cheerfully.

There was sudden silence from the other end. Then, hesitantly, "A . . . demon? Is . . . is it safe?"

The echidna laughed. "Compared to Devil Doom and the ifreet we've been dealing with, this one's harmless. As long as I introduce you, you'll be fine."

"Okay then," Tails sounded a lot more cheerful. "I'll track down Sonic and we'll fly out to meet you!"

Knuckles signed off and turned to Tikal. "Ready for the story?"

She grinned at him. "Yes, please. I take it you found the fire Chaos and the power stones?"

"I found the fire Chaos, yes, and with some new friends collected the parts of the Fire Opal, the King stone of the Sol Opals, but the Sol Opals themselves are still missing. They were destroyed, but the power got sent somewhere else, and to get them back we have to get it back. Or so Rex says."

"Oh. And who's Rex?"

Knuckles led the other echidna back outside, and they sat down on the lower ledge of the shrine. Chaos came quietly down to join them, and Knuckles explained about Rex, and Becca, and the Demon, and the sparks. He included his own not-so-glorious capture by Fang, and was secretly pleased by Tikal's dismay. He wasn't certain why he was so pleased, but it was definitely pleasant to have her fussing over his scrapes and bruises. She also gave him a lecture on carelessness. "If he'd been a different type of villain, that thief could have killed you when he found out you didn't have the shards he was after. Even if he didn't kill you himself, you could have been lost in those tunnels permanently; it was pure fluke that you found that hair trail, and you know it!"

"Hey, calm down!" Knuckles held up his hands in surrender. "All right, I admit that the hair thing was a fluke, but I did have the light with me, and I have a compass in the other shoe. If worse came to worst I could have used the Shovel Claws to tunnel out straight north or east! And honestly, most thieves would have just left me where I fell if I didn't have the treasure on me. I knew he wasn't local, because Becca didn't know him, and so he shouldn't have had a hideout to drag me to - which would have made kidnaping me risky." He flushed a bit in chagrin and rubbed gingerly at his head. "Of course it didn't work out that way, and I don't know why, but I actually _did_ think things through before setting myself up as bait."

Tikal blushed too. "I'm sorry. I don't have any right to scold you like that. And I didn't mean to imply that you didn't think things through." She knew that was a sore point for him, as Sonic and some of his friends tended to rib him for acting before he thought. (Which he did, and he knew it, but this_ hadn't _been one of those times.) She looked down at her hands, folded in her lap. "But you're the only echidna left, except for me - if I even count as one anymore. I'm afraid for . . . our people, I suppose."

The mood shifted abruptly. Knuckles looked down at his feet. "I'm not sure we have a 'people' anymore, although you certainly count as an echidna as much as I do. Probably more," he added, deliberately sounding as glum as Rex at his worst, "since you were actually raised among our people and I was raised by a rock."

"And the chao," Tikal pointed out, although she smiled faintly at his comment. Knuckles gave her an encouraging grin. He worried about her sometimes; what did it do to a person to live 3000 years as little more than an imprisoned spirit? Now that she was released, she could take physical form occasionally, but still . . . . He would die if necessary to defend the Master Emerald, but he wasn't at all certain he could bear the sort of 'life' she'd ended up with. He wondered if she'd known exactly what price she'd have to pay for the sealing of Chaos. But she seldom spoke of her past, and never of the details of her sacrifice.

He sighed and rubbed his face. "As long as I'm up here, I suppose I'd better do the rounds. Then I can go back down and wait for Tails and Sonic. Care to join me?"

Tikal nodded, but shifted back to her spirit ball form. _"If you don't mind my tagging along like this. I find it gets tiring staying embodied too long."_

"Not a problem," answered Knuckles. "Your company is a pleasure no matter what your body looks like." He frowned, as the peach light bobbed up and down with laughter. "That sounded a whole lot better in my head," he mumbled.

"_I'm afraid that gallantry was never much of an echidna trait," _giggled Tikal, _"nor tact. But the attempt is appreciated."_

"Shall we go, then, before I stick my foot so far in my mouth that I can't walk?" He'd cheered her up at least, and that would do for now. Still laughing, she agreed.


	20. Oops

19. Oops

Now that he had a place to keep it, Knuckles glided back down with his hoverboard. It definitely made getting back up to the island easier. _Maybe I'm getting lazy. Or, maybe I'm getting wise._ He considered the latter thought a moment, then snorted. _Better not let Sonic hear me say that, he'd laugh so hard he'd roll off the mountain, and then I'd have to fish him out of the lagoon before he drowned._ The tour of Angel Island had gone well, and several of the hitherto unseen fire chao had been waiting on the fringes of the lava zone. Apparently there was some sort of communication between the creatures, because these knew about the Demon and what had happened to their Thera-born brethren, and wanted to move down there. Or trade places, perhaps; the chao language was not always easy to interpret, even for Knuckles. _Actually, since they're fire chao, perhaps the Fire Opal is the basis for their communication, and that's how they know what's going on now, when they didn't before. Or maybe they did know and that's why they stayed hidden, but now that there's a Guardian they're feeling safer? _ The corner of one lip quirked. _'The world may never know.'_ That was one that he'd learned from Shadow, who'd learned it from Maria. It had been a food ad, the black hedgehog thought, but while neither dokan could figure out how the phrase could be used to sell food, they agreed it was a useful phrase, given how much was inexplicable in their respective worlds. _Odd pair of friends, perhaps, the ultra-technological, lab-born Ultimate Life-form, and the primitive, isolated Guardian. Although I suppose in some ways Shadow's been as isolated as I have - there were more people on the ARK than on Angel Island, but neither were much like what Sonic and the rest consider the 'real world', and neither of us had much chance to develop the social skills the rest of our friends know._ He shook his head as he landed on the spot he'd left from the day before. The sun was sinking gloriously into the ocean in the west, filling the sky with a much steadier fire than that of the gem he was returning to.

Since he'd gone up the tunnel, someone had marked it; presumably Becca or Rex to judge by the height of the marks. Small patches of bioluminescent fungus were also dotted along the path where the wall met the floor, providing adequate light for the echidna's sharp eyes to follow the chalk-white marks. Halfway to his destination, Knuckles encountered a pair of imps patiently teaching three toddlers how to water one of the patches. He churred a chao greeting and went on past while they stared in surprise.

He stepped out into the Demon's garden as the sky shifted to purple twilight. Down in the garden, however, the plants and stone walls were lit by a leaping bonfire atop a log pyramid. Surprised by such profligate use of wood on the relatively treeless island, Knuckles paused for a second look - and discovered that the 'logs' were actually narrow stone columns. The echidna advanced cautiously for a closer look. Yep, they really were stone.

"You _are_ in the lair of the **Fire** Demon, after all." Knuckles jumped and turned to see Becca perched on a boulder, her dark fur and well-worn coveralls blending with the dark stone around her. She gave him a friendly grin. "Rex is communing with the stone or something, and the Demon lit this and then disappeared - in a puff of smoke, if you can believe it. I'm not sure I do, and I saw it with my own eyes. Anyway, I'm supposed to be getting dinner, but I was waiting to see if you'd be back tonight." She swung her legs off the side of her rock and dropped down behind it. She reappeared around it and asked, "You haven't seen Rex's new home yet, have you?"

"No," answered Knuckles. "I didn't know he'd moved."

"Well, he can't very well run back and forth between here and Santorini all the time. And even if he moved to Thera, too many miners would see him running back and forth into the tunnels and get curious. So, the Demon made him a cave."

"_Made _him a cave?"

"Yep. Look," she paused in front of a door set into the rock wall. "This wasn't here when you left. Demon waved his hands, rock glowed red, and then just melted away. Couple of imps dragged the doors up from somewhere, and Bob's your uncle." She pulled the door open, and he followed her inside. The interior space was small, furnished sparsely but neatly. The platypus waved one hand towards an alcove. "The kitchen's going to be over there, once he sorts out how to run things off solar or geothermal power. That's a bathroom, with naturally heated water, of course, but this," she opened the other interior door, "this must've been here before, just closed off." She looked over at him to observe his reaction.

Knuckles was impressed. Seriously impressed, and a bit envious. 'This' was a library, or records room of some sort, lined floor to ceiling with stone shelves and pigeonholes that were filled with books, wax tablets, or rolls of paper or parchment. A stone table sat in the middle; it appeared to have actually been extruded from the floor and a part of it. The chair, however, was wood but so ancient-looking Knuckles didn't dare touch it. He'd seen much sturdier-looking furniture in his treasure hunts disintegrate at a touch. _Better not breathe too hard near it, either. But oh, how I wish I had a room like this. _ He might not be known to his friends as a great intellectual, but he was a great lover of history, perhaps because that was all the echidnas had left. He scanned a scroll that was partly unrolled on the table, held open by two rods that were weighted down by hinged tablets at each end. Greek letters marched in tidy rows across the handwritten parchment. Several of the tablets were open: more Greek letters, or in one case Soleanean, etched into the smooth wax and counterfilled with a contrasted color to improve legibility and prevent accidental erasure. The letters were ancient Greek, but the language was not; Knuckles could read a bit of the former, but these letters formed unintelligible words. The Soleanean appeared to be an old tale about either Solaris or the Demon. On the surface, both were ancient gods linked to flames, so it was difficult to be sure without a deeper look at the text. "Rex is going to have a field day with this," Knuckles said wistfully, dragging his eyes away from the tempting things on the table. He spotted two things on the shelves that were NOT of ancient manufacture: an Ancient Theran dictionary and a grammar text for the same language. The grammar was actually co-authored by Rex.

"Too right,"agreed Becca. "He was in here all hours last night. Oh, and guess what! He wants me to be a liaison between the miners and the imps; try to convince people they're harmless." She led him back to the kitchen-to-be and handed him a bag of groceries, while scooping up a second bag of pots and utensils herself.

Knuckles remembered the fire chao on Angel Island and grinned. "I have just the assistants for you," he said. "How would you like a couple of 'imps' that are willing to go right out into the town and meet people? I have a few up on the Island that would like to move down here, now that the Fire Opal is back."

Becca was thrilled. "That'd be awesome, mate! If they don't mind people looking at them, then that'll give the miners a chance to see that there's no reason to bother 'em. And if anyone cares to try while we're in town . . . ." She flipped the pickax out of thin air and hurled it across the garden. It lodged neatly in the center of a target painted on a dead fruit tree.

"You're very good with that."

"No point in having a weapon if you don't know how to use it. Even if this is one that can't really be turned against me."

"Can you make them disappear again, then?" Knuckles was curious. Amy had always refused to explain how her hammer worked. Most dokan, at least the males, could access a sort of 'pocket space' to carry things in, but nothing the size of a pickax or large mallet. Although, Knuckles reflected, he himself would be completely unable to explain to a human how he did that. It did seem to be a dokan-exclusive trait in the real world, although in various fantasy media humans could do similar things.

"Mmm, no, not if you mean 'can I make it disappear if someone else grabs it'. I have to be holding on to it to make it come and go." She freed the ax from the tree, and with a flick of her wrist, it vanished. "But nobody's yet dared come into swinging range."

"I'd imagine not." He put the bag of food down near the fire, and together they set up the meal for cooking. An imp wandered up and tamed the bonfire, somehow causing it to die back to flickers above the stone columns. Becca set the pans directly on to the stones to heat. Rex reappeared from the shrine tunnel right as she was pulling the last pot off the faux logs. Over dinner, Knuckles reported that Tails was looking for Sonic to bring him, and Becca told him that Tails had already contacted them; he and Sonic were on the way. So that was fine. Rex provided blankets, and Becca followed a troop of insistent imps off, with her bedding tucked under her arm, while Knuckles settled down near the stone-log fire. Rex had offered his house, but Knuckles was used to sleeping out under the stars, and the stones would continue to radiate heat for a good while, yet.

Sleeping outside also meant waking early, as the sky overhead brightened and the first pink light glinted off of the western walls of the garden. It would be a long time before the sun climbed high enough for its beams to hit the floor of the valley itself, but the reflected light was more than enough to tell Knuckles it was morning. The logs were no longer hot but they remained pleasantly warm, so he seated himself on one as he folded his borrowed blanket and watched the garden wake up. A troop of fire chao, including the deep red one marched out of one tunnel and began determinedly shaking several trees with ripe fruit. A second group, which included three water chao, scrambled around catching or picking up the falling produce and piling it in wheelbarrows. Then the tree-shakers - which appeared to mostly be power-type chao - wheeled the barrows away, and the rest began pruning and watering chores. Most of these were familiar from Angel Island, but there was one new task the puzzled the echidna at first: with two trees, the chao appeared to be digging them up, only to cart off the dirt and return with barrows of more dirt that they piled back around the roots. After a while the echidna realized that these trees weren't growing in the ground but in pockets of volcanic rock that had been filled with soil. The chao were essentially 'repotting' the trees, digging up part of the old dirt and replacing it with fresh. Becca turned up before too long, and the two dokan plucked themselves a breakfast of fruit off the trees.

"Where's Rex?" asked Knuckles eventually.

"Probably still asleep. Knowing him, he probably was up all night studying in that library and if he didn't nod off a the table, he still didn't see his bed until right before dawn." She idly twisted the stem off of a round fruit. "He's always been like that, once he started talking he wouldn't stop, once he started grousing, he _really_ wouldn't stop, and if he got into his research - well it might be weeks before you'd see him again. Although the gloom and doom parts and even most of the chattering seems to have gone away since the Opal." She twirled the stem in her fingers, her gaze fixed on it intently. Suddenly she looked up at Knuckles. "_I_ haven't changed like that, have I?"

Knuckles was startled by the question. "I don't really know you all that well," he temporized, "we just met a few days ago. But you don't seem to be any different, as far as I can tell. I think with Rex it's because he's been supposed to be the Guardian all his life, but since the stone was in pieces, he couldn't do anything about it."

The platypus seemed relieved as she considered his words. "That's a good theory," she said finally. Then they both jumped as her cell phone trilled. She fumbled through several pockets before she located it, then passed it to Knuckles.

It was Tails, coming in for a landing near the base of the mountain. Becca left to meet him and Sonic, and guide them back through the tunnels, while Knuckles went to rouse Rex.

To the echidna's amusement, the pantherine really had fallen asleep at the desk, fortunately on top of one of the modern reference books rather than one of the ancient texts. Rex blinked up blearily when Knuckles shook him gently by the shoulder. "I did it again," he said sleepily, as he sat up.

"Looks that way," answered Knuckles. "Sonic and Tails are here, and Becca's gone to show them in."

"Ah, then I'd best get ready." The white cheetah stood up and stretched. "Meet you outside in a few minutes?" Knuckles took the hint and left.

Rex actually did join him a few minutes later, looking considerably more awake. It was about half an hour though before Becca appeared in the tunnel mouth. Knuckles thought the platypus looked a bit dazzled, but before he could follow up on the thought Tails popped out of the tunnel. The little fox stared around a moment, with his twin tails flicking behind him, then spotted the echidna. "Hey, Knuckles!" he called delightedly. "This is gorgeous!" Then looking back at the tunnel he called, "Hurry up, Sonic!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," answered a familiar voice, and Sonic the Hedgehog followed his best friend out into the garden. Blinking in the bright light, although the sun was still not high enough to shine directly in to the garden, he looked around with mild interest. "Hey, Knux," he greeted the echidna, adding a second "hi" with a nod at Rex. The cheetah greeted him gravely, while the hedgehog regarded him with more curiosity than he'd shown the garden. Rex offered refreshments but the hedgehog shook his head. "No thanks, I'd like to get this done, and then explore your volcano a bit, if you don't mind. Eggman's done the volcano-base thing, but those aren't good places to look around. At least not if you don't want to get shot by a robot or jabbed by a spike trap!"

"You won't find any of those things here," Rex assured him. "And you are welcome to look around after we talk to the Fire Opal, as long as you take an imp with you in case you get lost. This way, please." He led the blue hedgehog and the fox cub (who looked decidedly disappointed by Sonic's declination of refreshments) towards the Shrine tunnel.

Knuckles fell into step beside Becca. "Is he always like that?" she whispered.

"Pretty much," he said cheerfully. "He's been so many places that it takes a lot to really surprise him, but people are more interesting because they change more. Or so he says. Although I bet the Fire Opal and the shrine will surprise him."

They certainly seemed to. Knuckles and Becca had to stop short to avoid walking into the blue hedgehog, who was gaping at the shrine and its occupant in awe. They squeezed past him to get out of the tunnel, and Knuckles spotted Tails standing by the closest of the pillars, studying the flickering crystals.

Sonic suddenly shook himself and closed his mouth. "That . . . is . . . cool!" he said slowly. "Now what am I supposed to do about it?" He looked at the echidna.

Knuckles had no idea, but he wasn't going to tell Sonic that. "You need to go on up to it. Just over one of the bridges."

Sonic grinned at him. "Cross a bridge?" he asked in mock dismay. "There's no -gulp- water under it, is there?" His distaste for water was genuine, but instead of getting upset by people who tried to wave it under his nose, he usually exaggerated it into a joke.

"Oh no," Knuckles assured him. He waited until the hedgehog had one foot on the stone bridge before adding, "Just lava."

Sonic froze, with one foot on the bridge and the other stuck out behind him. Slowly he turned, craning his neck to see over the edge. "Ohhh-kay." He put the rear foot back down and backed away from the bridge.

Knuckles stepped up behind him so the hedgehog backed into him. "Sorry, Sonic," he said - though he was not at all sorry - and grabbed the speedy blue by both arms. "You have to go over the bridge anyway. Surely someone who faced down an ifriti and a molten Golem isn't afraid of a little lava?" He started to march Sonic over the bridge.

"Hey!" Sonic twisted, trying to get away, but once the echidna had a grip his strength considerably outweighed Sonic's speed. "Maybe I learned better while I was fighting them!"

Knuckles didn't bother to answer; they were already across the bridge. Sonic gaped at the Fire Opal - and Knuckles did too, as the internal flames suddenly redoubled their movement. Abruptly a large tongue of flame seemed to stretch forward form the depths of the Opal - then came right out of the gem and washed across the shocked hedgehog. If Knuckles hadn't still been behind him, Sonic would probably have leapt back off the edge of the island; fortunately for Sonic (but unfortunately for Knuckles) the sharp quills on his back collided with the echidna's front. And then the Fire Opal went very still.

For a moment Knuckles thought the fire had gone out, but then he realized he could just make out the deepest hue of violet rolling slowly from one edge to the other. Sonic looked at the Opal, looked at Knuckles and opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Swallowing, he tried again and whispered, "What was that?"

Knuckles shrugged but before he could reply there was a blaze of rainbow lights, and seven brilliantly glowing, emerald-cut gems appeared in a ring around the Fire Opal. They began to orbit the King stone, glowing brighter and brighter.

"What's going on here!?" The voice was outraged, and female, and not Becca. Hedgehog and echidna both gulped as they turned to face the violet cat who was striding across the bridge. Blaze the Cat was in a temper, and little sparks and tongues of flame flared in and out of existence around her. Knuckles opened his mouth, gestured weakly at the orbiting Sol Emeralds - and just like that, all seven Emeralds shot straight into the Fire Opal and vanished.

There was a moment of dead silence as if everyone present was holding their breath. Then Blaze's voice sliced icily into the silence. "What did you do to my Emeralds?"


	21. The Sol Opals

20. The Sol Opals

_We're dead._ That was the only thought Knuckles could come up with. Not only had they stolen Blaze's Sol Emeralds, the gems had been consumed right before her eyes, and the little he knew of her did not suggest she'd be tolerant of explanations. Of course, were the situations reversed, he wouldn't be either, but– _We are so dead._ The flames flickering in the air around her grew larger and brighter.

Knuckles heard Sonic clear his throat, but the hedgehog didn't seem to be able to get any words out. Blaze stalked towards them, her attendant flames getting larger still as her ears folded flat to her head. "Sonic! I asked you a question," she snapped. Her voice dropping to a deadly soft level, she repeated, "What did you do to my Sol Emeralds?"

Sonic swallowed hard and opened his mouth– And with another blaze of rainbow light the Sol Emeralds were ejected from the Fire Opal, darting out to circle around Blaze. Before anyone could do more than blink, a second glow of light gathered above the fiery King stone. This time the light separated out into seven balls, each a distinct color: white, red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, and purple. They were far more intense than Tikal's spirit ball, and flickered from bright to brighter. As the dokan watched, the lights spun, flattened out a bit – and suddenly coalesced into the solid forms of the long-absent Sol Opals. They were oblong, unlike the circular Fire Opal, and essentially unfaceted versions of the Sol Emeralds. Knuckles unconsciously moved closer to the nearest and noted that the red stone was actually translucent rather than transparent and every shade of pale pink to darkest maroon flashed through the ruby-red background. _Like the Sol Emeralds, but unique at the same time_, he thought. _I wonder if each dimension has its own variation on the same base theme._

"Wh- what are those?" Blaze sounded bewildered, as well she might. Her wrath was at least temporarily assuaged by the return of her own gems - although Knuckles suspected that she would still demand an explanation - and she was clearly not at all certain what to make of the new ones that had appeared. Rex moved past the others and raised a hand, and the seven Sol Opals moved to hover before him in a cluster. Everyone else, including Becca and Tails, who had joined the rest on the island, moved in for a close look. Each stone was a different color, with the background matching the color of one of the Sol Emeralds (which were themselves the same seven colors as the Chaos Emeralds), and sparkled with glints of every shade of the base color. The exception was the white gem, which was purest milk white sprinkled with flashes of every color in the spectrum. Rex took hold of that one, tilting it to examine it more closely, and the other six twirled once around their Guardian, and then rose to the tops of the onyx pillars, each standing on its long axis on the top of the pillar whose crystals matched its color.

"Sol Opals, my lady," said Rex, with a graceful bow towards Blaze. She blinked at him as if she'd forgotten her own question. "I do apologize for the abrupt summons," he continued smoothly, "but the Fire Opal merely asked us to bring Sonic the Hedgehog here; it did not warn us that it intended to call the Sol Emeralds here through their prior contact with him."

Knuckles was only half-listening as Rex continued. Blaze's ears were still flat, she had her arms folded tightly across her chest and the end of her tail was whipping back and forth sharply enough to hear. Tails was edging behind Sonic - who looked ready to run the instant he saw an exit - and the red echidna, brawler though he was, would have been glad of someone to hide behind as well. Becca's eyes were flicking back and forth between the two felines, and the fingers of her right hand were curled slightly, as if grasping the handle of her pickax.

Suddenly Blaze moved, quick as one of her own sparks. She lunged at the white pantherine, one hand raised, then back-pedaled as a tongue of flame roared up between them. The Demon was suddenly there, its own arms folded as it glowered at the shocked purple princess, a thin but emphatic wall of fire blazing behind it to separate her from Rex.

Blaze hesitated, eyeing the black-and-flame-colored creature, then lowered her hand slightly to polish her claws lightly against her lapels. With a flick of her fingers, the claws retracted back into their sheaths. The holes at the tips of her gloves were barely visible. With a wave of the same hand, she made the Sol Emeralds cluster around her and vanish. "Apology accepted," she said grudgingly, glowering at the fire Chaos, "since I don't seem to have much choice. I hope you keep your gems better than the last Guardian," she added sourly.

"It was not the failure of a Guardian, but a lack of one, that caused the problem." Rex stepped forward as the firewall vanished, and the Demon stood aside, taking up a position slightly behind the cheetah. "I certainly can do better than no Guardian at all, and will try to live up to the standards of my predecessors. I do thank you for your assistance in recovering the gems that were ours." A flick grey-gloved fingers included both the Demon and the Fire Opal as part of the 'ours'.

Blaze regarded the cheetah thoughtfully. "Pretty words, white cat. Be glad that your fire-powers are borrowed, rather than innate," she added, glancing at the Demon again. She lowered her gaze to her own cupped hand as a small tongue of flame appeared there. "I got adopted into the Amerat royal family because of my powers; since the Emperors' line traditionally is descended from the Sun Goddess, I was obviously a member by birth, even if not by blood. I think your method may be preferable."

Tails, nearly forgotten, suddenly piped up: "Does that mean that Marine is going to be the Guardian for your world's Chaos Emeralds?" As everyone turned to stare at the fox cub, he gulped, muttered something about the Tornado, and fled back across the bridge.

Becca perked up, said - far too brightly - "I'll just make sure he doesn't get lost," and retreated herself, leaving Sonic and the quartet of Guardians. The Demon took the white Opal from Rex and gave it to Knuckles, then vanished.

"Um," said Knuckles. He looked up at Rex, not sure what to make of the gift. The cheetah was gazing into the distance, nodding slightly. Then he flicked his attention to the echidna.

"Take that to the Angel, and it should reshape the Chronos Rock," Rex instructed. "If that doesn't work, Demon will come and . . . explain things, I guess. Just tell the Sol Opal you need it."

"Just tell the Sol Opal," Knuckles repeated, feeling a bit silly at the mere thought.

Sonic cracked up. "Hey, no problem," he crowed. "Knux has talked to stones all his life!" The echidna glowered at him.

"May I offer you dinner, at least, since I've inadvertently dragged you from your world to this?" Rex ignored both of them as he offered his arm to Blaze. She still looked a bit disgruntled, but accepted, pulling dignity around her as befitted a princess. Sonic was still laughing. Knuckles waited for the two cats to cross the bridge and enter the tunnel back to the Demon's garden, then slugged the blue hedgehog.

"Hey!" Startled, Sonic staggered back, then darted forward to return the blow, with less strength but more momentum. Knuckles tried to return the strike with interest, but missed, then ran across the bridge, causing Sonic to miss his next attack as well. Sonic's quick temper combined with Knuckles' tendency to act before thinking had caused a number of conflicts between the two in the past, and it was practically a given that they'd fight over something if there wasn't a more pressing problem, like Eggman or the Black Arms; both males rather enjoyed the challenge of an opponent that could stand up to them, albeit with a different fighting style. Besides, after the unexpected stressors of the afternoon, they were both ready to hit something. They'd just settled into one of their traditional brawls, when Tails ran in and yelled at them.

"If you two want to eat, we're going into town now! Rex is treating us all to dinner!" The two-tailed fox jogged back up the tunnel without waiting for a response; he knew the pair well enough to no longer be concerned when they fought.

Food sounded good to Knuckles, and he'd never known Sonic to pass up a meal - all that running burned a lot of energy. By mutual consent they abandoned their battle and ran down the tunnel after Tails, bickering amiably over who had won, or would the next time. Becca had already taken Blaze on to her house to freshen up before joining them at the restaurant.

It was one that Knuckles hadn't been to before, fancy enough that he wished he'd done a bit of grooming, himself. He tried to console himself that no one would notice him: on the one hand, he was with Sonic the hero-Hedgehog, who was already attracting attention and preening in it; and on the other, the two female dokan had done enough primping to make up for the males anyway. Blaze had presumably borrowed her gown from Becca - fortunately they were about the same size - and certainly looked regal enough to be royalty, although the platypus in the mysterious (to Knuckles) way of females looked nearly as impressive. Both wore jewelry set with top-quality opals, which he assumed that Becca had collected herself. As he got a look at the interior of the place, while they waited to be seated, he really wished he'd cleaned up. He'd never been anyplace like this that served food; off the island he'd only been to a few of what Sonic referred to as 'fastish food places' or 'mom and pop joints'. This looked more like a museum, designed with the most elegant of the Greek architecture (although his trained eye noted that different periods were all jumbled together) and furnished with a combination of imitation and genuine antiques (the echidna also noted a few good forgeries among the latter). Elegantly dressed and coiffed people - human and dokan - sat at small tables draped with cloth, with fancy-looking plates of food in front of them.

Knuckle wrinkled his brow a moment, trying to figure out what was missing. The seating arrangements were a lot fancier than the plastic booths and bar stools he was familiar with, but . . . . He leaned towards Tails. "Where do you order at?" he whispered.

The fox cub smothered a giggle, and whispered back, "They'll bring us menus when we sit down, and the waiter will take our order at the table." He flashed the echidna a conspiratorial grin, well aware of Knuckles' reluctance to appear ignorant in public. Something seemed to occur to him and he tapped the larger dokan on the shoulder, standing on tiptoe to whisper, "They'll bring the food out eventually but it takes a lot longer than the hamburger place in Station Square. And it costs a _lot_ more."

Rex glanced back, apparently overhearing the last bit. "Don't worry about the cost," he said. "I'm paying." Just then a human in black pants and jacket came over and escorted them to a table. It was a bit prominent for the echidna's tastes, but the other diners were pointing and whispering audibly, "Isn't that Sonic the Hedgehog?", ". . . saved the world from that mad doctor . . .", ". . . Space Colony ARK. . .", and similar phrases. Knuckles consoled himself with the knowledge that no one would be looking at him anyway, and tried to sit up straight and not watch the others in his party too obviously while mimicking their behavior. There was a glass of water in front of him, and he sipped it self-consciously while looking at the menu, then the waiter returned with rolls and took everyone's orders. Knuckles nibbled at a roll but something was nibbling at his mind. Sonic was going on loudly about that dream he'd had about genies and the Arabian Nights - he'd even claimed that Knuckles was in it dressed up as Sinbad the Sailor - and half the people in the dining area had turned their chairs to listen. There were even some of the waiters and kitchen staff creeping in around the edges of the room. But Knuckles suddenly had a nasty feeling that he was forgetting something important.

He frowned at his roll, putting butter on it to occupy his hands while his brain ran in circles_. The Fire Opal is safe; it has the Demon to watch it and Rex would know if anything were wrong. The Sol Opals are all at the shrine except for the white one, which I have safe; the Sol Emeralds are all wherever Blaze tucked them. The Chaos Emeralds are who-knows-where, but that's normal. The Master Emerald is on Angel Island, and Tikal and Chaos are watching it. The Chronos Rock is still in pieces probably, but those are being guarded by the Angel and Mara, who is being guarded by half the griffs, I think, and the Time Stones themselves are still missing. So why am I so sure there's a threat to one of the power stones?_ The roll was gone, apparently he'd eaten it. He reached for another, noting that Sonic was now dramatically describing the battle between himself and the Ifrit Golem. _I'm overlooking something, I know I am. Dr. Eggman would love to steal the Master Emerald, but he's wary enough of Chaos that I don't think he'd dare try. Rouge is more focused on the Chaos Emeralds now; I __**think**__ she understands why the Master Emerald needs to stay where it is. _He might be being over-optimistic there, but he really didn't think she'd be coming up to steal it right now. Who else really knew about it? _Sonic and Tails, but they're both here and they wouldn't take it. Shadow, but he doesn't need it. Amy and Cream wouldn't, and Big may or may not remember it exists. Omega would remember, but I doubt that a robot would want it. Oh! _He nearly slapped himself on the forehead as it clicked. _Fang! HE knows about the Master Emerald, and he knows about Angel Island, and he knows I'm down here!_ Knuckles jumped to his feet, made some sort of apology to Rex and the others and didn't-quite-run out of the restaurant. Once he was outside he took off running in earnest, heading for the tunnels and where he had left his hoverboard. He finally reached it, then had to run up the tunnel to the ledge so he could launch himself, trying to reassure himself that Fang couldn't reach the floating island, all the weasel-wolf had was a motorcycle - _which could be convertible to a hover cycle, or he could steal or 'borrow' a plane. Arrgh! Why did I have to get stuck running around after these things? I'm a Guardian, and responsible for protecting MY stone! Why not pick someone like Kestrel, who's the same race as the Guardian but not himself required to protect the pieces that are already present?_

The island was quiet when he arrived. He'd never have made it without the hovergear; night had long since fallen and the thermals largely dissipated. He paused a moment to listen then set off towards the shrine, striving for the best combination of speed and stealth that he could manage, which didn't achieve much of either. He knew what he would see when he reached it, because he could tell as soon as he landed that the Master Emerald's aura was gone. He didn't know where Tikal was, but he pushed past a rather indignant-looking Chaos, who was shaking bullets out of its feet.

The moon was nearly full, hanging above the shrine and rendering the naked altar clearly visible. Knuckles scrambled to the top, and stood panting as he stared at the moonlit stone, bare of even a fragment of green crystal. Swearing at his own stupidity, he turned, scanning the surrounding area. Unless the thief had gone over the edge - which was possible if he did have a hover conversion on that bike - the only possibilities were his own cave or the red canyons that led to the rest of the island, and neither would shield the Master Emerald's aura from detection. Chaos appeared beside him, and proffered a slightly damp piece of paper.

Knuckles grabbed at the paper, then held it up to his face, squinting in the moonlight. With a growl he conceded that there was not enough light to read the writing he could make out, and pushed past Chaos, running towards his cave. There he flicked on the seldom-used lamp, and read the message:

_Since you did not see fit to share the giant opals with me, I took the liberty of rescuing your abandoned emerald. As you are no doubt aware, the size is a bit of an inconvenience as far as reselling it. However, I know that the size is part of why YOU value it, and I am not so heartless as to deprive you of your historical artifact if we can reach a mutually profitable accommodation. Therefore, I offer you the following options: _

_1. You can bring the opal pieces that you have collected over the last week, and in exchange I will return your emerald intact. _

_2. You can bring me the 7 Chaos Emeralds for the same exchange. _

_3. I can cut up this emerald into however many fragments will bring the best prices._

_In all honesty, option 3 is the least preferable, as mere emeralds are unlikely to have the value of those unique opals you collected, and certainly haven't the value of the Chaos Emeralds. However, I assure you that if necessary I WILL cut it up to recoup my losses. I shall contact you in a few days to get your answer and arrange for any needed exchange. I suggest that you do not try to trick me however, as I have your sister with me, and her well-being is dependant on your good behavior._

His gloved fist crushed the paper, and he stared blindly at the spikes on his knuckles. "He's got Tikal," he said out loud, to the room in general. Then, realizing that he wasn't alone in it, he turned on the watery being behind him. "Why didn't you stop him?"


	22. Crying 'WeaselWolf'

21. Crying "Weasel-Wolf"

The water creature shook its head and waved its arms through a pattern of gestures that completely failed to mean anything to the echidna. Seeing Knuckles' deepening scowl, Chaos stopped, perplexed, and gazed around the room. Suddenly it waved another hand towards Knuckles and the white Sol Opal appeared in its fist. Stepping up to the lamp, it held the Opal near the light, hesitated, and picked up a red dishtowel that was lying nearby and draped it over the shade, so that the light emitted turned pink. Chaos gave Knuckles a questioning look as it gestured to the covered lamp.

"It's pink," growled Knuckles. They were wasting time! They needed to get after Fang to recover the Master Emerald and– "Oh, it's Tikal?"

Chaos nodded and tapped the Sol Opal, still holding it near the lamp. Then it tossed the Opal at Knuckles, who missed catching the stone because simultaneously Chaos had turned off the lamp. Knuckles blinked in confusion and realized the Opal still gave off a soft glow where it lay on the floor. It rose and brightened as Chaos picked it up again, now well away from the table and lamp, and waved back to the table. Knuckles scowled again; what if the Opal had been damaged in the throw - and how could he keep it safe it that monster was going to snatch it out of hiding and toss it around? His fists clenched - and then he remembered: _Tikal shaking her head in response to his invitation to go down and talk to Wave with him, "If you could take the Master Emerald, I might be able to go, but if I travel too far from its power, I'm not sure I could stay . . . alive, I guess." _"She had to go with him," Knuckles stated, his rage draining abruptly, "because he was taking the Master Emerald. But . . . she came down to the temple."

Chaos went through another bit of pantomime. The temple, all of Mystic Ruins, in fact, was within the range of the Master Emerald's power, when Angel Island was there. "But Fang could take the Master Emerald anywhere he wanted, which probably _will_ be out of range since he knows I'll be looking for it," concluded Knuckles. He sat down and rubbed his face._ I'm going to need help, _he thought. _I can't give him the Fire Opal, or its shards. I don't __**have**__ the Chaos Emeralds. I have the one Sol Opal, but I need that to give to the Angel. Letting him cut up the Master Emerald isn't a problem _per se_, since I can put it back together, but trying to find and gather all the pieces will be a major hassle, and I don't know how small will be too small to support Tikal. _

On the other hand, who could he ask for help? Sonic would have a field day with the fact that he'd lost it so stupidly, and probably dash off immediately to look for Fang, which might cause the thief to harm Tikal. _Hmm, __**can**__ he hurt her? She's sort of a ghost . . . _He shook his head firmly, feeling his dreadlocks flap, and remembered her habit of shaking her braids when corporeal. He wasn't going to risk it - safer to assume that she could be harmed and go from there. Tails wouldn't do, because Sonic would want to know what he was up to, and the little fox wasn't much good at keeping secrets from his hero. He wouldn't _tell_ Sonic; he'd just stutter and hem and haw and generally confirm the hedgehog's belief that something was up, and Sonic would follow him around until he found out what. Amy was back in Central City, unless she was still visiting her flicky friend, and hammer or no, she'd probably not be much help against a sniper and bounty hunter like Fang. And even if Knuckles overcame his own qualms about inviting her into danger, Sonic would kill him. (He smirked at the sudden recollection of Amy pouncing on Sonic during the Meteor Tech mess. The blue hedgehog had all but whined, "Not in front of the guys!" Even Knuckles could tell the interest there was more mutual than Sonic liked to admit to publicly.) He shook his head and tried to focus. The obvious candidates were Shadow or Espio. Both were intelligent, skilled at fighting, and cautious enough to not run blindly into a trap. Knuckles had worked with both but wasn't sure he could get Espio's help without getting Vector and Charmy as well, and they would NOT be helpful. So, Shadow first, if he wasn't on another GUN mission already, and then Espio as second choice. Turning the light back on and re-stashing the Opal, he called Shadow's number.

He was in luck, Shadow was home, at least. Knuckles got as far as explaining that Fang had the Master Emerald and a hostage, when the black hedgehog cut him off sharply.

"You're on Angel Island now, right? Go to the shrine." The line went dead with a click.

Knuckles blinked at the receiver - one of Tails' creations - then headed for the shrine as directed. Normally he'd take offense at such abruptness, but it was Shadow, and on reflection he supposed there was a slight chance that Fang or someone else might be able to monitor the call. He stopped dead as he reached the bridge and glanced automatically down at the gulf between the shrine islet and Angel Island proper._ We're still floating. If the Master Emerald has left the island, shouldn't it have dropped? _He caught his breath involuntarily, expecting a cartoon-type reaction, where the island suddenly had its attention drawn to the fact that it was unsupported.

Nothing happened except a green flash near the steps of the shrine and the sudden feeling of a Chaos Emerald in the vicinity. Still frowning, the echidna continued across the bridge to meet the black-and-red hedgehog coming around the ancient structure. In the twilight, the white patch of fur on Shadow's breast seemed to glow, and Knuckles wondered inanely if his own white crescent looked the same.

"So," said Shadow quietly, continuing the conversation as if he hadn't just hung up the phone and teleported half-way around the planet, "you said Tikal and the Master Emerald were taken? By whom, do you know?"

"His name is Fang the Sniper, supposedly, although he goes by the alias of Nack the Weasel. He's actually a weasel-wolf, and purports to come from another dimension," reported Knuckles. "He also is willing to do anything for money, and only does things that _will_ profit him. He's purple with a white front, typically sports a brimmed hat and leather belt and boots, and carries guns. He has a motorcycle he calls the Marvelous Queen, but I'm not sure if it has a hover function or if he got up and down some other way."

"Up _and_ down," interrupted the black hedgehog. "Are you sure he has gone? I was under the impression that the Master Emerald's presence was what kept this island in the air."

"Uh, well, I've never been absolutely certain how that worked," answered the echidna. "It may have more to do with the gem being intact and able to transfer the power than its actual location in relation to the island. But I _am_ certain that it isn't here; I can always sense the Master Emerald's presence anywhere on the island."

Shadow nodded his acceptance of the claim, and proceeded to question the echidna. How did he know it was Fang? When did he first notice the weasel-wolf in the area, and what had he done about it? Knuckles felt progressively more foolish as he explained about seeing the thief several times around the island without recognizing him, and getting knocked over the head and kidnaped, and then forgetting completely about the villain after he'd escaped the tunnels. He let his replies stumble to a halt, more depressed than ever by his failure.

A red-and-white-gloved hand touched his arm lightly and he looked up, startled. Shadow's ruby eyes regarded him with unexpected sympathy. "You can't be in two places at once," he commented softly. "At least you were not betrayed by someone you should have been able to trust."

Knuckles nodded, remembering that Shadow considered it his fault that Maria had died when the GUN forces that should have been defenders of the space colony ARK had attacked. Since the reason for the attack was to eliminate everyone who knew anything about Project: Shadow, there was some justification to the view, although there was nothing Shadow could have done to prevent it.

"So," continued the Ultimate Life-form briskly, "what did you tell your group when you left so precipitously this evening?"

"Uh," Knuckles dug through his memory. "I don't really remember," he admitted finally. Rubbing sheepishly at the back of his head, he added, "I think I said something about forgetting to feed the chao."

Shadow actually grinned at him, a rare sight indeed. "In that case, I'm surprised Sonic isn't up here already, demanding an explanation." Both dokan looked over as a blue plane whirred into view at the edge of the island. "Speak of the devil, I think."

Knuckles groaned. "I was trying to avoid Sonic's finding out. He'll charge right in and ruin everything!"

Shadow cocked an eyebrow at the echidna. "He _does_ tend to charge in blindly, but you do have to admit that he usually comes out on top." The response was a sullen grunt, and he smirked. "However, it this case I think you're right. How about we set him the task of making _certain_ that the thief isn't still here? Then Tails can fly you and me down to . . . Thera, was it? We can pick up the search there, unless you have an idea where else he might have gone."

Knuckles shook his head. "I don't know. I have no idea where his base is - when he first turned up, I'd never been off the island, and I really only did enough research to find out who he was and why he'd wanted the Emeralds. And then he never came back so I didn't follow up on it. He was really more after the Chaos Emeralds than the Master anyway, and they aren't usually here anymore." A thought occurred to him. "I do have - where is it - this." He pulled out the energy tracker that Tails had made.

It was snatched from his hand in a cloud of dust and leaves. "Cool, what is it? Oh, Tails made this, are we looking for Chaos Emeralds again? Who's after them this time?" Sonic the Hedgehog, dancing with eagerness, was already adjusting the settings on the device. He blinked and did a classic double take as it vanished from between his hands.

Shadow handed the unit back to Knuckles. "A thief by the name of Fang the Sniper was here. He has kidnaped Tikal and is threatening to harm her if Knuckles doesn't give him what he wants. Since Tails loaned this device to Knuckles and I have some natural talents in detecting Chaos Emeralds, I am going to help him try to track several down. In the meantime, it would be most helpful if you - and Blaze, if she would be so kind -," Shadow nodded courteously at the purple feline who had just walked up with Tails, "if you would scout around the island and make certain that Fang has actually left rather than hiding somewhere here. Agreed?" Without waiting for an answer, the black hedgehog turned to the fox cub. "Tails, would you be kind enough to fly us back down to Thera? We ought to get started right away so we can rescue Tikal as soon as possible."

Sonic was still gaping like a fish as Shadow swept away, herding Tails and Knuckles before him. Knuckles didn't blame him, although part of him was chortling over how neatly Shadow had handled the blue hedgehog. The rest of him was nearly as dazed as Sonic by the way Shadow had simply steam-rollered over Sonic's attempted interjections and questions, his deeper voice smoothly reeling out information and instructions while giving the other hedgehog no chance to object. Tails kept trying to look over his shoulder as Shadow steered him away, then gave a philosophical sigh and shrug and trotted on ahead to the Tornado.

Shadow indicated that Knuckles should take the seat behind the fox cub, who was going through his pre-flight routines, and jumped up himself to Sonic's favored perch on the upper wing of the biplane. Shortly afterward, the plane was bumping its way towards the edge of the island. Knuckles decided that if he had to jump off the edge into the darkness again, he'd do it under his own power.

Tails dropped them off in a field, told Knuckles that Becca and Rex had gone back to the Demon's garden, then took off again to help Sonic and Blaze search the island. Knuckles turned on the detector and glanced uncertainly at Shadow. "Am I supposed to be setting this for the Master Emerald or the Chaos Emeralds? I can't look for both at once."

"How far away can you detect the Master Emerald?" countered the black hedgehog.

The echidna considered a moment, then closed his eyes and 'listened' with his mind. He shook his head slightly. "I don't know the range, really, but I don't think it's on this island. Well, islands. Any of the bits that used to be Calliste. I can hear the Fire Opal a bit and I think it would know if the Master Emerald were here." A thought struck him, could he use the Fire Opal to find the Master Emerald? Were they linked in some fashion, now that the fire-associated stone was reformed? He shook his head in annoyance_. I don't have time to try to figure out how to talk to the Opal, even if it does know where the Master Emerald is. I can't get Rex involved, then the Fire Opal might be at risk. _The idea that Rex might not insist on coming along never occurred to him; everyone he knew except Big the Cat insisted on charging into danger if someone was threatened, the only difference was the degree of preparation beforehand. He looked down at the locator box in his hands. The only Chaos Emerald in the vicinity was apparently on Shadow's person, but that was hardly surprising. Slowly he sank down, seating himself with his legs crossed. He placed the box on his crossed legs and a hand on each knee, straightened his posture and closed his eyes. _Breathe in, breathe out. Feel the King stone where it is, and feel where you are._ This was an old, old lesson, learned in dreams, practiced in the waking world, but only on Angel Island. Knuckles had never tried it off the island, even when he knew where the Master Emerald was. He tried to blank his mind, boxing up the theft, his own shame, Tikal and his worry about her, the rock that was jabbing him in the thigh, and all other distractions, to focus on a green point of light that glowed steadily and still. But it wouldn't come. The worry especially kept knocking the top of the box and climbing back out. Knuckles mentally dropped a boulder on the lid to keep it shut and tried to recenter himself. He managed the blankness, but couldn't seem to find the light. Somewhere far away he felt something touch his shoulders.

Suddenly the horizons expanded. In the darkness resulting from the absence of the light he sought, he could not see them, but he felt them withdraw. There was a light behind him that he couldn't see - not the one he sought, but a candle flame to lessen the gloom. And something sensed, dimly, like a gleam at the corner of his left eye. He turned his head slowly, as if afraid to startle it, and the light behind remained behind him, out of sight. But there, far, far off across the nothing, was a spark of green, bright and small as Venus in the early morning. Slowly still, he reached a hand out in that direction, pointed, and lowered it until he felt ground beneath his finger. With his other hand, and equal care, he made a fist and scratched the ground with his claws four times, drawing an arrow with the tip under his finger and a second one right beside him, both pointing to the distant light. Only then did he return to his initial pose and work his way back up to full consciousness. He wasn't surprised to find Shadow sitting behind him with his hands on the echidna's shoulders, but he didn't quite see why. "What did you do?" he asked.

The hedgehog opened his eyes and met Knuckles' violet ones a bit doubtfully. "I reasoned that since the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald are linked, the power from this," he gestured at the green Chaos Emerald in his lap, "might resonate somehow and help you locate it. I was trying to serve as a sort of conduit and pass the power on to you. I don't know if it worked, or helped– What's that?" As he'd looked away from the echidna's gaze, he'd spotted the marks on the ground. Knuckles was a bit surprised to see them himself; he'd never tried to manipulate the physical world in a trance before, and hadn't expected it to work.

"That's the result of your help," he said proudly. He stood up and drew a line with his foot through the points of both arrows. "The Chaos Emerald extended my range enormously. I don't know exactly where the Master Emerald is, but it's a long way away in that direction."

Shadow looked thoughtfully along the line. "You realize there's an entire planet lying a long way in that direction, don't you?"

"Only half of one," countered Knuckles. "More than half and the line would be pointing the opposite direction." Shadow snorted. Then he pulled out a gadget that resembled a cell phone and took a reading along Knuckles' line. A small screen lit up with a map, and a line traced across it. Knuckles craned his neck to see, and Shadow turned the device slightly to give him a better view.

"Ever been to Africa?" asked the black and red hedgehog. "I think we ought to go here, near the west coast, and see if you can get another reading on the Master Emerald." The white-gloved finger tapped the designated portion of the continent. When Knuckles nodded agreement, Shadow strapped the device to one wrist and put his hand firmly on the echidna's shoulder. "Shall we go?" And they were gone in a flash of green.


	23. Echidna Vs Africa

22. Echidna vs. Africa

Knuckles fell to the ground with a yelp, as his knees gave way at the unexpected drop and he tumbled to the ground at Shadow's feet. He had suddenly gone from standing on the black soil of Thera to standing on thin air about two feet above baked yellow clay, scattered with clumps of straw-dry grasses. His bones may have been intact, but his temper broke in the fall, and with a snarl he rolled up and forward swinging a punch at Shadow as if he were Sonic. Since the black hedgehog was not, and was looking off to one side, he was taken completely by surprise. Knuckles brain caught up with him as he looked at the startled Shadow sprawled in the dirt, and he felt a sudden thrill of fear. _I just knocked down the Ultimate Life-form, who took on an entire alien army practically single-handed and teleported an asteroid into space just by thinking about it. _He shoved the feeling aside. "What sort of trick was that?" he demanded. Having started a fight he wasn't sure he could win, he figured the best defense was to maintain the offense. Shadow blinked up at him, then vanished in a flash of green. "Where'd you go?" snarled Knuckles, unwilling to let the other get away.

"Out of reach," came the calm reply from above. Knuckles whipped around to see an enormous but nearly leafless tree behind him. Shadow was standing on one of the twisted, rootlike branches, rubbing his jaw. "I always leave space to land when I Chaos Control; if I misjudged the terrain I might find my feet trying to reappear inside the ground. I'm sorry, I forgot to warn you."

Knuckles growled. He didn't really want an apology, he wanted something to punch. His common sense pointed out that Shadow was really not a good person to fight with, but he ignored it. He'd been sent on this stupid quest he didn't want and then pulled and sent from place to place by nearly everyone he'd met, and the end result was that he'd failed his primary duty and lost the Master Emerald, not to mention Tikal.

"This is a baobab tree," said Shadow musingly. Knuckles irritation increased; now he was being ignored! He wanted a fight, not a botany lesson. He slammed a spiked fist into the trunk, distantly noting the oddly spongy feel. "They're used to being battered about by elephants, so maybe you should vent your feelings on it a bit," continued the black and red hedgehog, looking unusually serious, even for him. "I don't want to fight you, Knuckles; one of us would be badly hurt, and that wouldn't help Tikal."

_Tactful of him to say 'one of us' when we both know he means me._ Knuckles slammed the tree again, then made a quick vertical strike that carved deep gashes through the rough bark. _I suppose I should count myself lucky that he's being reasonable, but I don't want to be._ He set about pummeling the massive tree in earnest, opening and gradually enlarging a hole in the side, channeling anger and frustration into each punch. Abruptly a blow tore through into empty space. The unexpected lack of resistance made him lose his balance, and he fell forward, breaking through a thin layer of wood and tumbling into a large, hollow space. The rank scent of a predator filled the interior of the tree, and the warm, yielding object he'd landed against withdrew with a snarl. In the dim light filtering from above and the brighter light from the hole he'd made, Knuckles found himself looking up at a very cross lion.

With a war whoop he rolled up and punched the confused beast in the nose, not giving it a chance to decide whether to fight or flee. The lion opted for the latter course and hobbled out through a hole in the back of the tree. As Knuckles watched it go he noted the scars on its sides and the thinness that left hip bones and ribs protruding. An old cat then, and probably deaf, since it had apparently been asleep despite his pounding on the tree.

"Where did that come from!?" The echidna looked up and grinned in spite of himself at Shadow's shocked expression. The hedgehog was still sitting on a branch, and staring after the lion in amazement. Suddenly he looked around sharply. "Shouldn't there be more? I thought lions lived in groups."

"Lionesses live in groups," said Knuckles. "Lions live with a group until a younger or stronger lion forces them out, and then most of them starve to death unless they can take over another pride. That one's obviously come out the loser, and too old to take over a new pride."

"Oh." Shadow looked at Knuckles uncertainly. "I swear I had no idea he was in there when I suggested you beat up the tree."

Knuckles laughed. He'd worked out most of his aggression before he fell into the tree, and the poor lion had been distraction enough to drain the rest. "I believe you. If you wanted me out of the way, you wouldn't need to use a lion to achieve it. Shall we get on with the search, then?"

Shadow eyed him a moment, then dropped down neatly out of the tree. "By all means. How did you learn about lions anyway? Surely there aren't any on Angel Island."

Knuckles grinned. "You haven't been up there much, have you? Angel Island is literally crawling with tiny animals; our lions might be only a few inches tall, but we have at least two dozen prides. Including one that's predominantly black lions, which are very rare for the full-sized variety. The chao like to play with them - all the animals, I mean - and actually can change themselves to look like parts of their playmates. That's how you end up with critters like that peacock chao that won the National Chao Show last year." He stopped by a large, irregular anthill. "This might be a good place to get directions." He thumped the clay mound a few times, and when nothing visibly moved he hopped up to sit on a relatively flat portion. Shadow took up a guard position while the echidna composed himself to seek the Master Emerald again.

This time Knuckles was able to locate the Emerald's shine without assistance. It was still a long way off, but much closer than before. He scratched his arrows and opened his eyes to find Shadow already calculating the direction. By his own rough estimate, the Master Emerald was now north and a bit east of them. "We overshot it,"he commented.

Shadow nodded. "I was trying to, actually. I also came further west than the original bearing, so we could triangulate the position a bit." He frowned at the tiny screen. "Unfortunately the ocean sort of got in the way, so we couldn't get as far west as I'd have liked."

He unfastened the gadget and handed it up to the echidna. "Take a look."

Knuckles dutifully looked. He had a rough knowledge of continental geography, from flying around (and occasionally over) various lands on Angel Island, but the political divisions of countries were largely mysteries to him. He shook his head slightly; the names on the screen meant nothing to him. "North-central Africa," he said - thoughtfully, as if he was trying to recall information he'd forgotten. Then he gave up. "I don't know much about it," he admitted. "Isn't that where humans are supposed to have come from?"

Shadow hoisted himself to sit on the anthill beside him. "That's here," he said pointing out a spot much farther south. "No, this," he tapped the first spot, "is mainly jungle, with small villages of humans who tend to engage in tribal conflict." He shot the echidna a sly glance. "You should feel right at home."

Knuckles was startled enough by the jest that he missed part of the hedgehog's next words. Then he interrupted, recognizing a problem. "But, why would Fang take the Master Emerald someplace like that? Small villages - the people there might appreciate the beauty of a gem, but they certainly won't have the degree money that Fang intends to sell it for. And he certainly can't contact his favored buyers from the middle of a jungle."

The scarlet eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "The _entire_ area isn't primitive; there are cities there, and I think you'd be surprised at the degree of communication available in most areas. But you're right that the primary concerns of the majority of the population are food and medicine, not precious jewels. GUN has just ended a relief operation where they were bringing in food because of a major drought - which was followed by enough flooding to destroy what little food they had managed to grow and store." Shadow's voice trailed off as he thought. Finally he shook his head. "I don't know. If the Master Emerald is there, then the thief must have some reason, but I don't know what it could be. Shall we go now, or would you like to hit me again?"

"If you warn me before you make the world and the ground disappear, I won't hit you," said Knuckles pointedly. He slid to the ground and brushed off a few inquisitive termites. "Ready when you are." Shadow slid off the anthill as well, and the world turned green.

This time the green light lingered, resolving itself into sunlight falling through a canopy that seemed miles overhead. The two dokan dropped into a clearing in heavy green shade. Looking around the echidna saw that where light broke through the canopy there were dense clusters of bushes and smaller trees, but much of the rest of the ground was dare of green plants. Moss and mushrooms grew rampant, however, and the damp heat was oppressive. Knuckles looked around for something to sit on, and took a tentative kick at a long-fallen trunk. Several rat-sized creatures fled out the far side, and his foot nearly went through the rotted wood. On second thought, he didn't really need to sit. Instead, he leaned back against a nearby tree and closed his eyes.

He didn't even have to reach this time. The presence of the Master Emerald was there, no further than the width of Angel Island away from him. He opened his eyes and waved for Shadow to follow, as he started walking towards the feel of the stolen gem. The black hedgehog fell in behind, scanning alertly for natural or people-made hazards.

There was a brief delay as the nature of the jungle changed, the canopy became sparser and the undergrowth exploded, forcing the dokan to locate an elephant trail rather than force their way through dense saplings and often-thorny bushes. However, the only trails leading off in the direction of the Master Emerald were old and growing over, so Knuckles ended up hacking and shoving anyway, as well as swatting a clouds of bugs out for his blood. Suddenly he stopped, sniffing the air. The scent of damp and rotting vegetation was pervasive, but he thought . . . nothing. A few pauses later he caught the unmistakable stench of death. A grim look passed between the two dokan, and they pushed on. The smell grew stronger, but the first thing they found was a marshy stream - and more mosquitoes - and after slogging through it, they discovered that it was inhabited by leeches as well. Knuckles nearly had a heart attack when he realized that some of the mud on his legs was actually creatures sucking his blood. At that, he was completely unable to make himself touch them, and sat cringing with his face turned and his eyes shut while Shadow pulled them off. _I am so glad that it's not Sonic along on this trip. _It ought to have been funny, the 'fierce guardian' with a tendency to pick fights terrified of a 3-inch stip of leech, but something about the blood-sucking - just the concept - gave him the cold willies. _I know it's stupid, but I also __**know**__ I'd die if I had to touch one, and you can't reason with a panic attack._ He glanced over at Shadow as they continued, and opened his mouth, but thought better of his question before he asked.

"Falling from a height," said Shadow.

"What?"

"You were going to ask what I can't face, and it's falling from a height. You could ask Rouge, she saw it during that Metal Sonic masquerade, but I'd rather you didn't; my behavior isn't exactly something I'm proud of."

"I can understand that," agreed Knuckles. He didn't particularly want anyone else knowing about his reaction to leeches. Just then they came in sight of the source of the stench, and he forgot about leeches, heights, and phobias.

It was a mass grave of animal parts and carcasses. In unspoken consent the pair split up and circled around opposite sides of the pit, looking at uncured, damaged hides, partially butchered or nearly intact carcasses, and disjointed bones. "No dokan," said Knuckles, as they met on the far side, "and nothing human."

"No," agreed Shadow, "but nothing profitable, either. See there," he pointed at a headless form that had apparently some sort of antelope, "that one's had the head removed as well as the hide; you can get good money for antelope heads or skulls with the horns intact. And that hide there, you can see that it's too scarred up to sell." He looked at the mound of remains in the pit, then around. "I think we can add poaching to the list of crimes this Fang has committed, or at least fencing poached parts. I doubt one person filled all of these."

Knuckles hadn't fully realized it until the last comment, but now he looked around too and saw that Shadow was right. This pit was one of several, and on closer observation he noted spots where suspiciously smooth ground suggested an older pit had been filled in and smoothed over. "We'd better get–" _on_, he'd intended to say, but a peach colored form jumped up behind him and hugged him with a squeal of "Knuckles!"

Shadow reacted like the trained warrior he was, leaping clear, taking a defensive posture and charging a Chaos spear in one hand, "Who are you?!" he demanded.

"Shadow, stop!!" cried Knuckles, holding his ground as Tikal ducked behind him, and then turned back into her habitual spirit light form.

Shadow stared at the glowing ball a moment, then lowered his spear, but did not dismiss it. "I take it that– you are Tikal?" he said uncertainly.

"_Yes," _the light dipped apologetically. _"I hadn't meant to startle you, but I was so relieved to see Knuckles here and safe that I forgot myself. You must be Shadow."_

"I am." Shadow blinked at her then dismissed the Chaos spear and bowed. "Shadow the Hedgehog, Ultimate Life-form, at your service, my lady."

Tikal switched back to her echidna form and returned the ancient Echidnan style of curtsey. "I am grateful to you, Lord Shadow, for joining your spear to our cause."

"_Lord _Shadow?" Knuckles couldn't help himself. "When did he become a lord?"

"Surely someone with the title of 'Ultimate Life-form' must be possessed of greater worth than the common throng," said Tikal, haughtily. At Knuckles expression she dissolved into giggles. "Also, it's polite," she added in a much more normal tone, still giggling. Shadow, who had been eyeing her doubtfully, snorted.

"At least there are some echidnas with manners," he said. "But we need to rescue you and the Master Emerald both. Do you know where it is?

"Not precisely," she admitted regretfully. "There's an ancient fortress over there," she waved in the direction they'd been traveling, "but when we got there Fang had some of his gang shut me up in an old cell and I don't know where he took the Master Emerald after that. I know it's there, somewhere, but I didn't really see much before they pushed me into the pit."

"What pit?" asked Knuckles sharply. He had a sudden image of Tikal being tossed into an offal pit like the one they'd just examined.

"A lot of the old prisons were actually pits," said Shadow. "It's harder to escape when the door is several feet above your head." Knuckles grimaced, he knew about the pit dungeons, but had forgotten. Tikal nodded her agreement, and returned to her spirit ball form.

"_There is an old back door," _she said. _"I don't think any of the current inhabitants know about it, but we'll have to be careful because it's in view of their plain road."_

Shadow frowned. "Plain road? You mean a dirt road, or a paved one?"

"_No. They__** are**__ called planes, aren't they? Those machines that fly, like Tails' Tornado."_

"Oh." Comprehension struck. "You mean a runway, where the planes take off and land."

"_Runway then. But they don't run, they have wheels. Anyway, it's this way." _The peach glow drifted off, dodging offal pits as she traveled, and the echidna and hedgehog followed. Soon they could make out the stony remains of an ancient fortress, overgrown with creepers and trees, but windowless, and with the tops of the walls cleared of greenery. A few moments watch revealed the presence of at least one guard, pacing along a walkway behind the wall. With a glance at Shadow, Knuckles continued following Tikal towards the 'plane road'.


	24. Breaking and Entering

23. Breaking and Entering

The runway was a long stretch of roughly cleared - and even more roughly smoothed - flat land, carved out of the surrounding jungle. A small plane with a propeller on its nose sat in a shed at one end. It was blue, and those few details essentially exhausted Knuckles' knowledge of planes.

Although the area around the main gate of the fortress was cleared, trees and bushes had grown up to the walls, and vines even climbed towards the battlements in a few spots. Tikal's pale glow led them right up to the wall under the cover of some of the trees. Shadow frowned at the rough wall.

"How do we get in? Surely they aren't so careless that we can climb unnoticed?"

Knuckles grinned. "You've been in too many high-tech bases, Shadow. This is _my_ area of expertise." He was delighted to have a chance to show off his skills, and prove that he wasn't as dull-witted as some people alleged - although to be fair, Shadow wasn't among them. But this _was_ right up his alley, given his experience at treasure-hunting. He slid his hand across the wall, cautiously testing the stone with his fingertips. He found a faint lip, but when he tried to follow it it merged back into the wall. The next few cracks did the same. Then he found another slight ridge, too faint to see, but just offset enough to feel, and it ran straight and vertically. He traced it with a knuckle spike, scraping centuries of lichen and dust off the stone. It appeared to end about two feet above the ground, but after a bit of searching he began to trace an intersecting line horizontally towards the left. With Shadow watching intently, Knuckles carefully located and highlighted the outline of the escape door.

"Getting it open may be a problem," he admitted as he stretched on tiptoe to mark the upper edge of the door. "Virtually all of the old fortresses had some sort of secret escape route in case of siege - this probably opened into some other structure initially, or would have been shielded by one. But most of them were designed so that they only could be opened from the inside. As you can see, there's nothing here to get a grip on or a prybar under. But sometimes they did have hidden latches that let a few privileged souls in as well as out."

"I'd think that it would be difficult to keep something like that a secret for long," commented the hedgehog. "Especially if most of them had one."

"Knowing there is an exit isn't the same as knowing where it is. And unfortunately more than a few architects and builders were executed to preserve that knowledge. Often only the lord of the stronghold himself knew the secret, although many might suspect it's existence." Having scraped a rectangular mark on the wall, Knuckles was now feeling inside it. If there was a latch, it was more likely to be located away from it, but he'd found a few . . . . _Wait a minute. _He looked over at the spirit light. "Tikal, can you open this from the inside?"

The peach glow made a funny sort of bounce in midair. _"Oh! I . . . I don't know. Let me go look."_ The light zipped up towards the top of the wall, and vanished against the bright sky before Knuckles could say anything else. He frowned in concern, he hadn't expected her to leave so quickly.

Shadow echoed the echidna's own thoughts. "Are you sure it's safe? If the secret was that valuable, mightn't the area have been blocked or trapped somehow?"

"I'm certain it might not be safe," answered Knuckles with a grimace. "I hadn't expected her to zip off that fast. Deadfalls were the most common . . . we'll have to hope that any traps will have been sprung or become useless over the centuries - or that Tikal, being a spirit, will be immune to them." He didn't like having to count on that; if she was solid enough to affect things - as she'd need to be to open the door - wouldn't she be solid enough to be affected by them?

Again Shadow seemed to read his mind. "But she can't open the door in her spirit form, can she?" He frowned more. "Is she even tangible as an echidna?"

"Yes." Knuckles did know the answer to that. "At least, she's solid enough when I touch her." Belatedly he realized how that sounded, but Shadow didn't seem to notice. _Rouge would certainly have picked up on that one, and I'd never hear the end of it. I wonder how she and Shadow are getting on?_ It really wasn't any of his business, but he couldn't help being curious.

Just then there was a muffled but unmistakable rumble from inside, as if a wall had crumbled, or a rock deadfall trap had been set off. Knuckles and Shadow both jumped towards the door, ending with their palms flattened uselessly against the rock. It took all of Knuckles' will to not pound on the door with both fists, which might have been fatal for them as well as Tikal if she wasn't already discovered. _And if she's not already hurt._ He heard Shadow's sudden catch of breath and looked to see the hedgehog had one black ear pressed to the stone. He looked rather worried, which was probably the equivalent of panic in most people. Knuckles shoved his dreads back and pressed his own ear to the door.

Screams. Faint, but unmistakable . . . but not female. He wasn't absolutely certain, but they sounded male. He closed his eyes in acute relief. "Not Tikal," he murmured.

"No," agreed Shadow. The hedgehog stepped back, and looked up the wall again, trying to see above the branches that scraped it about twenty feet over their heads. "But I don't think we can go that way; not if they're patrolling the area."

"I don't suppose you could use Chaos Control–"

"Not into an enclosed space with no idea what's there," interrupted Shadow curtly.

"I know that," Knuckles persisted, "I meant up to the top of the wall or something. I know there are guards up there, but we'd have the benefit of surprise." He scraped his spikes idly along the wall again and suddenly one sank in! He jerked it back automatically, then leaned in for a closer look, as Shadow crowded in to look too.

The small hole, big enough for a finger, had been plugged originally with a stone peg. Over the centuries, that peg had worked loose, enough for the point of Knuckles spike to catch on it and remove it all the way. The echidna rummaged in the leaf litter at their feet for a sturdy twig, and slid it into the hole. There was an almost inaudible _ping_, and he pulled the twig back out, with some difficulty due to the rusted needle lodged in it. "That was probably poisoned originally," he said to Shadow, as he inserted the other end of the twig. Further probing elicited no response, so he _carefully_ slid a finger in. He could feel something like a lever, but was unable to make it move. With a sigh, he reported what he had found to his companion.

"Let me try," said Shadow. With as much caution as the echidna had demonstrated, he slid his own finger in. After a moment he asked, "Do you know which way it needs to move?"

Knuckles reinspected the door outline and finally shook his head. "I have no idea," he admitted. "Can you actually move it?"

"I think . . . with just a bit of Chaos energy boost," grunted Shadow, the tendons in his forearm standing out above the wrist of his glove, as the gold ring that encircled same glowed. After a moment he shook his head, relaxing, then shifted his angle and strained again, this time trying to slide the hidden lever the opposite direction. With a loud _crack! _Something clearly gave way. The hedgehog jumped clear, but nothing further happened. "It moved," he said finally. "Did it not work?"

"Well, we don't know exactly what it was supposed to do," Knuckles reminded him. "However . . ." he listened to apparent silence on the other side a moment, then leaned on the door, lunging his weight against each side and the bottom in turn. "I can't reach the top," he commented by way of explanation as he hooked his finger into the hole again.

This time he pulled, bracing one foot near the lower crack and grimacing at the strain on his finger. Finally he stopped, shaking his head. Shadow tapped him on the shoulder, and he stood aside to let the Ultimate Life-form take his place. The ring on Shadow's wrist again grew brighter as he pulled against centuries of disuse - and quite possibly a bar or other locking mechanism. But suddenly something shifted, with a groan of rock on rock, and a sifting of dust from the lines Knuckles had scraped on the face of the wall. Shadow paused a moment, then pulled again, as the echidna dug his claw tips into the crack and tried to pry. He couldn't quite dig in, but the door shifted again, this time by about an eighth of an inch. The two dokan took a few moments to rest, then resumed their efforts and gradually the door pulled outward, incrementally. Finally a gap was visible, but Knuckles wisely stepped back, letting the first rush of stale air dissipate harmlessly into the general jungle aroma, before returning to dig his claws into the crack. A few pulls more and Shadow joined him, sliding his own gloved fingers in next to the echidna's aching claw-spikes. Just in time, as it turned out, because the next pull was the last straw for one of Knuckles' abused spikes. The horny keratin splintered against the stone door, sending a lance of pain up the echidna's arm. As he pulled back with a gasp, Shadow said "I've got it," and drew on the Chaos Emerald itself for strength enough to haul the secret exit open.

Knuckles stepped clear, sucking on his injured knuckle. He could feel the Chaos energy shifting as the red-striped hedgehog drew on the Emerald's power, and instinctively reached to make certain that the Master Emerald could still be felt within the fortress. He was not expecting Shadow to collapse as the door swung open, and as he hurried forward he caught a whiff of the escaping air and realized he should have warned the hedgehog. "Oops," he muttered, as he dragged the other clear.

Shadow recovered quickly enough, coughing and rubbing his head. "What happened?" He jumped to his feet, looking around. "Was it a trap or an attack?"

"Neither," said Knuckles cheerfully, "or at least, it wasn't a deliberate trap. Often, in old sealed-up areas, the air goes bad, and you have to let it refresh itself before you breathe it." He waved towards the door, which he had pulled wide in the interim. "As you can see, the hidden door actually opens out of a little room that is itself sealed off; I admit I'd expected a passage, which would be less like to be so well sealed. But," his tone shifted to concern, "the other side was a wooden partition which is smashed . . . and there's blood leaking through."

Shadow took a step towards the door, then paused to check, "It's safe to go in?" At Knuckles' nod he leaped up to the floor, which was indeed two feet higher than ground-level. "That wasn't Tikal who yelled, so if there's blood, it's unlikely to be hers, I would think."

Knuckles climbed up to join him. A recent fall of large stones - almost certainly the ones they had heard - had smashed the wooden wall at the back of the small chamber. After listening again, they started to clear a path through, finding the actual hidden door through the partition in two pieces. At that, it had fared considerably better than the wall it had been set in. The body of a dokan lay half-buried at the edge of the fall, about six feet from the secret door. It was a hyena, presumably the one who had been screaming, but now apparently unconscious. A quick check of the ceiling verified that it was a purposely set trap, and no accidental fall of stones. A check on the fallen dokan proved that he was now beyond help.

Knuckles was relieved to see that Tikal hadn't been caught in the trap, but he was beginning to worry about where she actually was. Had she been caught? (Could she be caught?) Had she just had to hide to avoid being seen, and gotten stuck somewhere she couldn't exit from unobserved? He and Shadow were currently in a timbered hallway, running parallel to the outer wall. About sixty feet to the left was a gate made of steel bars - far too new for the rest of the building - and well lit by a couple of kerosene lanterns. Doors seemed to line both sides of the corridor, which was unlit except by the lights at the far end and the sunlight leaking in behind the intruders. Knuckles advanced carefully down the tumbled rocks and took a better look. Yep, doors on either side, some solid (or not-so-solid, the closest was rotting away) wood, some with inset iron bars. Some were missing completely, leaving dark holes. Shadow looked into the closest one and grimaced. Knuckles followed and nodded slightly. It was the real, original dungeon; a pit dug down into the earth, a single rusted manacle lay where its chain had fallen from the wall, and the place stank of mold and damp. Any other smells had long since faded with time, but the stench of urine and decay - and worse - was all to easy to imagine. Knuckles hissed involuntarily as pain stabbed through his hand; looking down he realized that he'd clenched his fists and pulled on his broken spike.

The pain was forgotten as another sound broke the silence. "Who- who's there?" Tremulous and frightened, but clearly Tikal's voice. He hurried up the hall, but Shadow of course was there first. This door was new, and a large lock held the bar in place. Shadow started to turn toward the barred gate and the desk they could now see on the other side of it, but the echidna stopped him. "Tikal," he called softly, "it's us."

Suddenly peach light glowed on the other side of the barred window, and a moment later the spirit light floated between the bars to join them. _"Oh, am I glad to see you! I got back down here right as the guard was coming to check on me, so I had to pop back into my cell, and then there was a dreadful noise and I was afraid to leave in case someone came to investigate. It sounded like a wall fell in or something."_

"Something," said Knuckles. "It was a deadfall trap, but I have no idea why it fell now. Do you know where we go from here?"

"_I know that Fang stays on the second floor and I'm pretty certain that he'd be keeping the Master Emerald with him. He doesn't trust the Clan any farther than he can see them. Actually, I'm not sure he trusts them if he __**can**__ see them. He seems to consider them unreliable because they have a cause, or something."_

"That sounds about right," said Knuckles slowly, remembering what he'd learned about the weasel-wolf previously. "He's out for money and himself, which means as soon as the danger outweighs the profit he'll cut and run, and expects anyone else to do the same. People who have causes don't always react the way he wants. What cause?"

"And who are the Clan?" interjected Shadow.

"_The Clan are a group of local dokan. Two of them are hyenas, and there's a hawk, but the rest look like weasels but call themselves meerkats. I'm not sure if that's a family name, they seem to all be siblings and cousins. I think the hyenas and hawks are out for money and themselves, like Fang, but the meerkats seem to think their tribe should take over the area." _Knuckle heard the twist in her voice, and knew she was remembering family of her own who had believed their tribe should rule. They had passed through the barred gate while Tikal explained and were now following her up a set of stairs. At the top they found themselves in a roofed alcove that opened onto a wide, unkempt courtyard. The flagstones were uneven or missing, pushed out of the way by bushes and even trees, or piled to one side of the area for unknown reasons. What remained was thickly outlined by grass. The massive gates that lead out to the jungle were barred and braced, except for a much smaller door that was set into one of them. With a sudden explosion of chatter, the small door opened and a swarm of dokan crowded in.

Swarm was the only word that Knuckles could really apply. They moved like Sonic on a caffeine buzz, albeit not at supersonic speed, but they were quick-moving, quick chattering, and hopped about like a bunch of mad sparrows, waving their hands as fast as their tongues and somehow not dropping the cases they carried. As soon as they were through the door, two separated themselves from the mob, a grizzled grey hyena, and a sky blue hawk with scarlet trim. The remainder were presumably the meerkats, weasel-headed and -tailed and displaying a variety of mottled pelts ranging from brown to gold to white. Somewhat to the echidna's surprise, at least half of them seemed to be females, wearing close-fitting but practical coveralls in colors similar to their own fur. Both males and females continued to converse at the top of their lungs, but due to the speed of their chatter and the fact they all spoke over top of each other, Knuckles had no idea what they were yelling about.

He glanced curiously at Shadow as the black hedgehog went rigid next to him. "Look what they're carrying," whispered the other in reply.

Knuckles looked, couldn't tell in the swirl of motion, then looked at the hawk and hyena, and was able to see the crates were branded with the G.U.N. blazon and the phrase 'Hunger Relief'. "They're stealing the food?"

"Stolen, or black marketed." The hedgehog was furious, and not because he was a sometime GUN agent. "I have to stop them; that's not only illegal, it means people who desperately need food will starve and _they_ clearly **don't** need it." That much was certain; the jabbering crew were dusty, but fit and well fed. "Listen, I'll help you find Fang, and then leave you to deal with him and retrieve the Master Emerald while I round up this lot and call GUN in to pick them up. Agreed?"

Knuckles nodded, realizing that while Shadow was serious about his own mission, he was also giving the echidna a polite way to get rid of him. The hedgehog was perfectly well aware that the Guardian felt personally responsible for his charge and resented having had to ask for help. "Agreed. Do we have to go in that door, Tikal?"

"_No, there's another set of steps outside. This way."_ They followed the pale light around the edge of the courtyard to the back of the main building, then up the second flight of steps. Tikal slipped under the door at the top, which was again of modern manufacture, and a moment later they heard the sound of bars sliding and bolts opening. "He's downstairs right now," the peach echidna whispered as she opened the door, "but we'd better get out of this room fast."

_No kidding_, Knuckles thought as he looked around. This was a not-so-minor treasure room, clearly where most of the goods were stashed. And they were not merely thieves of rescue supplies; stacks of rare hides and a dozen large elephant tusks occupied one corner of the room, along with prime horns and skulls. A chest nearby displayed another source of income - the raised lid revealed a heap of cut and uncut gems piled atop bars of gold._ I wonder if that's raw gold, or melted down jewelry_. Nearby were recognizable stone artifacts pilfered from ancient Egyptian and Kareshi sites. Another corner near the inner door held about fifty more cases of GUN food donations, and Knuckles felt a surge of anger himself at this Clan who were stealing food from the starving. _Stealing historical artifacts from the dead, or money or items from people who have plenty is bad enough, but stealing from those who have nothing but what you take is utterly despicable! They're not only breaking the law, they're increasing suffering and possibly people will die from it! _It didn't improve matters when he saw several more cases with the medical emblem below the GUN mark. People might really be dying for lack of those supplies.

He suppressed his rage, or at least postponed it, as Tikal pushed open the door to the inner hall. Voices came loudly if indistinctly from the right, and he saw a staircase landing in that direction. The Master Emerald, however, was to the left, and it was that way the echidna headed. The door was locked, but he trusted the noise downstairs to cover his own as he slammed it with a fist (fortunately his good one) and tore the bolt clear out of the door. The cool, green glow that greeted him _felt_ like a greeting, a welcome from an old friend, and he ran across the messy room to slide a hand across the polished facets. Dimly he heard Shadow say something about heading downstairs, and nodded absently. One more stroke across the green stone, and he convinced it to shrink down, to something he could tuck out of sight. Then, with the Master Emerald back in his possession and hearing footsteps approaching, he headed back out. The look on Fang's face, as Knuckles stepped out into the hall in front of him, was priceless.


	25. The Thief Punished

24. The Thief Punished

To give him credit, the weasel didn't gape long. He grabbed for the guns at his sides, but Knuckles had already closed with him, dragging him up the hall and further from possible help. Given the noise below, it was unlikely that anyone would hear a shout but a gunshot might well encourage interest. The weasel didn't resist, his dark eyes narrowing but his prominent, namesake fang bared in anticipation.

"So," he said softly, "you did scrape up enough courage to come after me. I'm surprised." He flicked a glance at the door to his room, which had swung nearly closed but was unmistakably damaged. "And you found your precious rock, but haven't had time to escape with it. Checking to see the coast was clear before you ran, or looking for your girlfriend? You won't find her up here, you know; I asked Vela to - shall we say - look after her."

The leer that accompanied that last sentence was too much for Knuckles, and he punched the thief hard across the jaw. He'd forgotten about his broken claw, but it reminded him sharp and clear, painfully enough that he barely muffled a yelp of pain into a hiss that he hoped the weasel would take for anger.

Fang rocked back with the blow, trying to use the momentum to twist free, but failing. Instead he tried to reach his guns again, and the instant the echidna instinctively glanced down, Fang snapped at him, bringing that oversized canine into play.

Knuckles got a much closer view of that tooth than he liked, but he managed to lean away from the bite. Unfortunately he also lost his grip on his opponent and the two separated and began to circle each other. Violet eyes glared into near-black ones as Knuckles reminded himself to fight intelligently. _He's got guns, and I don't. He's also got a heck of a lot more allies than I do, and they're all within easy call. But I outweigh him, and I know I know how to fight better than he does. I bet he knows how to fight dirty, but so do I. All that training's no good if I don't use it. _He feinted a punch and pulled back, gauging the other's reaction. He was a bit shocked to notice the blood staining his glove around his spike.

Fang seemed equally startled by the scarlet smear, one hand rising unconsciously to his jaw, seeking damage. Knuckles took advantage of the momentary diversion and slammed his good fist into the other's shoulder. This time the weasel-wolf did bleed, as the spikes struck home and Fang instinctively tried to dodge sideways.

_First blood, albeit minor, _noted Knuckles, eyeing the short, parallel gashes. They weren't deep enough to really cause any problems, but morale-wise they might be useful. For whatever reason Fang chose to forego his guns and surged forward to strike some punches of his own.

Knuckles blocked one, two, then absorbed a third as he blocked a knee from an area he really didn't want hit. Then suddenly his opponent's thick tail was between his legs and he stumbled, tripping over the purple obstacle. He tried to catch his balance while blocking another punch, failed at both, but managed to stomp hard on the tail as he fell down with his own chest smarting from a blow. He jumped to his feet before Fang could follow up his advantage, and they circled again, the weasel flicking his abused tail in indignation.

Suddenly the noise from below changed, from overly loud conversation and mild bickering to yells of outrage and threat. A few odd zaps and hisses told Knuckles that Chaos energy was being used. _Shadow's making his move. Good, that'll keep them busy down there. _He surged forward again, slamming Fang bodily back into the wall. _And I'll keep the boss busy up here._ He pummeled the weasel's pale-furred chest, ignoring the pain in his injured spike.

The weasel tried to bite him again, this time managing to catch one of the long flattened spines the echidnas termed 'dreadlocks'. It snapped with a loud _crunch_, painlessly but close enough to his ear that the echidna flinched, and as the weasel jerked his head he pulled the spine out by its root, which _did_ hurt. Knuckles lost his focus enough for Fang to shove him away and eel away from the wall, and this time the thief did go for his guns.

Knuckles eyed the guns, and snorted in spite of himself. The muzzles were plugged with what looked like a pair of large corks. _**Pop**__guns? He's going to shoot me with popguns?_

Apparently so, because the weasel pulled the triggers and the two large corks shot straight for the bemused echidna. Involuntary amusement turned to shock as the first struck - and the initial soft impact was joined by a stabbing pain. The second hit the floor at Knuckles' feet and puffed out a cloud of purple haze. Knuckles jumped back, both from the pain and the unknown vapor, and the weasel turned and fled up the hall. The echidna pulled the one cork free of his chest - noting vaguely the needle it had extended on impact - and jumped for the wall, climbing high enough to launch himself over the mist and glide after his fleeing enemy. Fang reached the landing, looked down the stairs, and doubled back into the treasure room, which gave Knuckles a chance to cut down his lead. Tikal popped out from behind the supply crates as the red Guardian burst through the door. "He went out the back!" she cried. Knuckles nodded and ran on.

Weasels were incredibly fast, and Fang was no exception; he was already down the stairs and crossing the courtyard. Echidnas had more strength than speed, but Knuckles also had the benefit of his gliding skills, and he took to the air to follow his opponent's trail. He didn't catch up, but he lost no more ground before he landed on the flagstones as Fang struggled with the inset door. Knuckles managed to catch up with the other just as the door opened, and Fang went through it to land on his chest, propelled by a blow from behind. Twisting like a snake, he rolled over and up - right into another spiked punch that made his nose bleed. He ducked his head and butted the echidna, then eeled to the side as the other surged forward to regain lost ground, landing a blow to Knuckles' own back he passed by. Knuckles staggered, turned around and discovered that his opponent had the drop on him again; Fang had a gun in each leather-gloved hand. In the best tradition of adventure movies, he hadn't even lost his hat.

"I'd stand still, if I were you," the weasel said coldly. "That purple gas was just knockout gas, but this one," one of the guns twitched slightly, while remaining targeted on Knuckles, "is quite lethal. There's no profit in killing you, but since you were clever enough to follow me here, there's little risk, while there's very great risk in letting you detain me. I know who Shadow the Hedgehog is working for, and he's not an enemy I'm willing to tangle with; still less do I care to risk apprehension by GUN, which is all that awaits those fools in there. I hadn't really expected you to hand over the Chaos Emeralds, but I'd hoped you might part with some of those opal shards." Without taking his eyes - or his guns - from the echidna, the weasel-wolf edged towards his motorcycle, waiting by the shed that served as a make-shift hangar. Knuckles tensed, but the distance was too far to cover before the weasel got a shot off, and he dared not risk that Fang was lying about the poisonous cork bullet. He was reduced to growling with frustration as the weasel reached his bike. Keeping the allegedly lethal popgun aimed at Knuckles, he hooked the other arm over the seat of his bike and vaulted aboard without a glance. With a smirk that Knuckles truly wanted to wipe off his face, Fang said, "A pity I've gone to all this trouble for nothing, but it's not the first time my plans have fallen through, nor will it be the last. I do believe you've met my Marvelous Queen before, but I doubt you're aware of all her talents." The bike shifted suddenly from wheels to hover mode and rose gracefully to a height of three feet. Looking down at the echidna, the weasel-wolf added, "And that's not all." He flipped a switch between the handle bars and a darkly glowing maelstrom opened in front of him. "Farewell guardian!" he cried mockingly as the bike jetted into the dimensional portal, which closed promptly behind him.

Knuckles, having lost his target, turned on the hangar shed and knocked it down on top of the small plane. _That will make sure the Clan can't escaped before GUN gets here_, he rationalized. He was still scowling at it when Tikal poked her head out the gate. "Is it safe?"

"He got away," growled the irritated Guardian. "I failed again."

"Nonsense," said Tikal firmly. "You came to get the Master Emerald back, and you have. Once you'd achieved that goal, there was no need to fight the thief anymore. Fighting never solves anything anyway; it only causes more trouble, sooner or later."

Knuckles looked at the peach echidna. She had her chin up, and her blue eyes met his with unwonted belligerence. A small smile crept across his face in spite of himself, and he dropped his gaze, raising one hand to tentatively poke at the spot where Fang had pulled off his dreadlock.

Tikal gave a soft cry and came forward, pulling his head down so she could look. He was a bit disappointed by her sensible, "It'll grow back," but submitted in silence to her examination of his other injuries. She was far more concerned by the needle stab from Fang's gun than he was. It was fairly low on his chest, between two of his ribs but not _that_ deep, and it took him a bit to figure out why she was so concerned about it. Puncture wounds had been far more serious in her day than they were now; many of the ancient Knuckles warriors had covered their namesake spikes with longer sheaths in battle, because an injured enemy that managed to flee would frequently be stricken by a high fever that bound his jaws invisibly together, and sent his whole body into spasms. _Lockjaw_, thought Knuckles.At one point he'd gotten a lecture from Tails about it, which had resulted in the echidna giving in and getting a shot to prevent it. _Yeah, let's go get a puncture wound on purpose in case I get one by accident,_ he'd thought at the time. But it was a disease that he'd been warned about by his tutors, and living alone as he did it had seemed a good idea. He wasn't particularly afraid of dying but preferred something a bit less stupid than stepping a splinter or a shard from a defunct robot. He was more concerned that the needle might have been drugged or poisoned, than with the injury it had caused.

Shadow stepped away from the gate and offered Tikal an open first-aid kit. She recognized its purpose at once, and started pulling out gauze rolls and bandages. Catching Knuckles looking at the GUN logo, the dark hedgehog shrugged. "They'd already smashed this case open. I figured we may as well use it." He handed the red echidna a damp towel.

"We?" Knuckles didn't see any indication of injuries on the other. Being the Ultimate Life-form had its advantages. "What did you do with them?" he asked.

"They're still there," answered Shadow casually. "A bit tied up at the moment, if you'll pardon the pun, but GUN forces are on their way to pick them up and recover the supplies. I'm not sure what they'll do about the other stuff up there. Anyway, I didn't think we needed to hang around until they got here, but I thought you might want to clean up a bit before appearing in front of the Lady Guardian."

Knuckles had a sudden vision of himself, bloody and bruised, standing before Lady Marahuté. It wasn't so much that she'd mind, he thought, as that he'd mortally offend the other griffs and probably the Babylonians by appearing before her in such a state. "Yes," he agreed, starting to wipe at some of his grimier spots with the towel. Slogging through jungle did not do much for one's appearance, but he hadn't realized until he started wiping just how dirty he'd gotten. "I do." Then he frowned. "But she's not even on this continent; it's not like I can just appear . . . oh." He flushed as Shadow quirked an eyebrow at him. "You don't have to teleport me all over the planet," he protested, "I only asked for help to get the Master Emerald back. And I do appreciate your help," he finished a bit lamely.

The crimson eyes studied him thoughtfully. "I don't mind," said the hedgehog at last. "And I admit that I'm curious about these other stones. The question is, are you declining my help because you don't want to put me out, or because you really don't want me to come along? Because I can at least drop you closer to your goal, even if not right on it." He tilted his head and smiled faintly. "And if you don't want me to come, I promise I won't be offended if you tell me so; I've certainly been in the position of keeping awkward secrets or being burdened with unwanted company."

Knuckles looked away, to the annoyance of Tikal, who was trying to clean the spot where his dreadlock-quill had been pulled out. He winced as she pointedly poked it harder with the disinfectant pad; she'd already bandaged the needle-jab and his shattered knuckle spike. "Do I get to come too, then? Or are you going to drop Master Emerald and me off at Angel Island on the way?" she asked in a carefully neutral tone.

"Oh." Knuckles hadn't thought about that. He took the pad away, and dabbed at the bald spot himself. She took it back with a _tsk_ of irritation and rubbed a spot right below that he'd presumably missed. Shadow was looking very amused and Knuckles glared daggers at him. "I can do either, as you wish," said the black hedgehog without a trace of humor in his voice, thought it still glinted in his eyes. "But I do recommend we go before the GUN patrol gets here."

Tikal was looking at Knuckles hopefully. The red echidna sighed. "I'm not sure I can take you right in to the caves," he temporized. "There's a guard at the entrance and they only let me in last time because I was with Wave. But," he looked at Shadow, "if you can drop us at the entrance to the tunnel, then we can try. At least I can have someone get in touch with Kestrel, and he can take a message to the Lady for me." He grinned as Tikal clasped her hands together, not quite jumping with delight. "After all, as long as you're off the Island, you may as well get to see a few things; and as a Guardian yourself all these years, I'd think you're entitled to meet Lady Marahuté and the Angel. _If_ Shadow's sure he doesn't mind."

"Quite sure," said Shadow, also amused by the peach echidna's excitement. Resuming his courtly act, he bowed to Tikal. "If it pleases you, my lady, then it is doubly pleasing to me."

"I think I'm outnumbered," said Knuckles. "But how do you know where we're going? I mean, you can't just jump to 'the spot outside the griffs' cave' can you? Without having been there?"

"I can't go somewhere I've only heard of, no," answered Shadow, "But I can go to any place I have seen. And I believe you told me that the Master Emerald can show scenes in its facets, so I thought we'd ask it to show me where to go."

"But its never been there–"

"But _you _have, Knuckles!" interrupted Tikal. "Just tell it where and it will know where you mean because you do."

The red echidna opened his mouth, and then closed it, deciding to quit before he looked any more foolish. If it didn't work, then he'd be vindicated, and if it did, well . . . . _It won't be the first time I've been wrong. _He pulled out the dwindled King stone, realizing for the first time that it didn't actually look small, somehow - like the Fire Opal's shards, it simply took up less space without itself changing at all. It was vaguely unnerving, as if he and Shadow and Tikal and everything around had grown larger, rather than the Master Emerald shrinking. He shivered and spoke to the gem softly, self-conscious in front of his audience. "We need to go to the griffs' cave to reform the Chronos Rock. Can you show Shadow where I want to go?"

A sourceless light reflected off the upper facets of the green stone, and suddenly the largest, central facet reflected from nowhere the guard post outside the cave, with a golden-hued griff on guard. Shadow extended a hand to each of the echidnas, and the whole world went green.


	26. The Whole of Time

25. The Whole of Time

Knuckles blinked and saw they were right where he'd wanted to be. The guard appeared to be the same bald eagle griff that had argued with Wave so vociferously against his entry, but a second griff stood next to him, holding a basket. Knuckles stomach growled loudly as the scent on the breeze told it what was in the basket. He felt his face go hot, but common sense reasserted itself and pointed out that the griffs were staring because of the sudden appearance of three dokan in a flash of green light, NOT because of the stomach rumbles of one of the trio.

The first guard's identity may not have been good news, but the second griff's surely was. Kestrel's beak gaped wide in a grin as he set down the basket and ran to greet the echidna. "You have come back! Did you find the other King stone? The Angel has restored the Lord Jet and his companions, and they have already left, but it has not turned the Shooting Stars into a whole yet. Lady Mara has spoken with–," he glanced over his shoulder as the white-headed guard cleared his throat pointedly, "he knows who she is, he has met her - Oh very well." The speckled griff rolled his eyes as he turned back to Knuckles. "The Lady Marahuté, Guardian of the Dancing Clouds, has spoken with the Angel earnestly and long, but it will not yield. Albus doesn't actually speak your language," he added _sotto voce_, "but he recognizes the Lady's name and considers it wrong to call her by a . . . short name? Ah, a nick name, thank you.

"So with whom have you come? You know that this place is supposed to be secret." Kestrel didn't seem particularly perturbed, although whether he trusted Knuckle's judgement or simply enjoyed seeing new faces was open to debate.

"This is the Princess Tikal, for many years the Guardian of Chaos' children," said Knuckles grandly. He wished fleetingly that he'd had a chance to come up with a water equivalent of 'Dancing Clouds'. "She remained behind to watch the Master Emerald when I came last time, but she wished to greet the Lady Marahuté as one Guardianess to another."

Shadow muttered "Guardianess?" but the echidna ignored him. Tikal dropped her ancient Echidnan curtsey to the fascinated gryphon dokan, and greeted him in her mother tongue. Which he understood none of, of course, but he returned a bow and greeting in the style of his own people.

"And this is Lord Shadow, who fought courageously against the Biolizard, Metal Overlord, Doctor Eggman, and many other foes, who has the ability to utilize the Chaos powers of the power stones that I guard and who used them to bring us here. He would like to pay his respects to the Guardian of the Dancing Clouds, but understands that it may not be permitted."

Kestrel looked at Shadow, who was standing slightly behind Knuckles with his arms folded and the cool, distant demeanor that was his usual reaction to strangers. His scarlet eyes met the griff's amber ones as the hedgehog nodded his head with a sharp jerk. Kestrel bowed his head, displaying the chestnut feathers on his crown while he thought. Finally he gave a little shake of his head and raised it again. "The princess may come now," he said. "We have been instructed to grant all the Guardians access to the Lady. But I must seek permission before letting anyone else enter the caves."

"Certainly," said Shadow calmly, before Knuckles could reply. "You would be remiss in your duties to do anything else. May I wait here, at least?"

"It will not take long. Oh! But perhaps the princess would prefer to go now? I can–"

"I would rather wait with my friends," said Tikal, "especially if it won't take long to get permission."

"Oh! No, my lady, it won't. I'll go now." The blue-grey wings fluttered as Kestrel turned and ran down the tunnel, with the end of his tail flared out as well. The dark-brown guard who remained turned his head, one eye watching the visitors while the other watched Kestrel. After a moment the white head-feathers ruffled and flattened and he propped his spear against the wall and picked up the basket at his feet.

The pale-blue eyes gleamed with humor as the guard paced forward. He said something in his own language, ending with a graceful bow towards Tikal, and offered her a cup he filled from a jug that was also in the basket.

Tikal accepted the cup he offered, and he took out and filled two more. Knuckles and Shadow took theirs in turn, some sort of fruit juice, although Knuckles couldn't identify the type. He noticed Tikal raise the cup to her lips, but he couldn't tell if she was actually drinking or not. The guard said something else - that sounded apologetic - and walked back to his spear to sit and eat. Not too long after, Kestrel came jogging back up the tunnel to say that Lady Marahuté would be most honored to meet the hedgehog who had come from the sky, and would the three join her for dinner?

They were not escorted to the throne room where Knuckles had previously seen the Lady, but to a dwelling carved out of the cave wall a short distance from the great hall's sculpted entrance. The stone walls were striated in black, grey and gold, and several wasp-waisted pillars that were clearly joined stalactite-stalagmite pairs reached from floor to ceiling. The furnishings were simple but elegant, like the lady herself. Her gown today was the pale blue of an infant chao, and the belt at her waist was a slim band of silver set with blue gems.

Two of the albatross guards stationed themselves by the door as she bade her guests enter the dining room and find seats. Knuckles remembered to wait for their hostess to seat herself first, and hid a grin as Shadow nearly forgot. An unobtrusive, light blue swallow served the meal and retired through a curtain to what was presumably the kitchen. As Knuckles had found the last time, the food was unfamiliar but very good. As soon as Lady Mara took her first bite, he and Shadow dedicated themselves to eating. After several minutes however, the Lady looked over at Tikal. "Is it not to your liking, dear? I can have them make you something else, if you prefer."

Tikal demurred quickly, "No, it's not that. It's just, I, ah . . . ." She fumbled a moment, at a loss for a polite explanation. "I haven't eaten anything since the Echidnan Empire fell," she stated finally.

Lady Mara was startled, but covered her surprise quickly. "I see. So you were the one who quelled the fury of the water Chaos?"

"Actually, my lady, I only contained it. It was Sonic the Hedgehog who managed to quell it three thousand years afterwards."

The golden griff nodded, regarding the peach echidna thoughtfully. Then she bowed her head, unfurling her wings at the same time. "I honor your courage, Princess. I have heard the story of the fall of your father's Empire; I do not think I would have had the strength to make choice that you made.

"I believe you wanted to meet the Angel and see our Dancing Clouds; that can be arranged for tomorrow morning. But," she said turning to Knuckles, "I fear that I have been unable to persuade the Angel to restore the Chronos Rock."

"I was afraid that might be the case," answered the red echidna. "But the new Guardian of the Fire Opal has given me a Sol Opal; it was his hope - or perhaps the fire Chaos' - that it would be adequate proof that the need is genuine. He also said that the fire Chaos, which the people of Thera call 'the Demon', would come if needed to encourage the Angel."

Mara considered this for a while as they continued their meal. "I do not know that these inducements will be effective, but I have been unable to change the Angel's mind. Perhaps the Demon and a Sol Opal will be able to do what I cannot. I have arranged for you three to stay at the house you guested in last time, Knuckles. I will meet you in the morning and we will go to the valley; the Angel took the Shooting Stars there after the fiasco last time."

Knuckles and his companions offered the appropriate thanks, and after the meal they were escorted to the guest house. Tikal was absolutely fascinated, by the carpets, by the furniture, by the sheets on the bed ("what skill their weavers must have, to weave so large a piece of cloth without a single blemish!"), by the indoor plumbing. (Knuckles did have a sink and toilet on Angel Island, but supposed she'd never seen them. They weren't exactly the kind of things you'd think to show off to a spirit - especially a spirit of the opposite sex.) The two males followed her around the house, enjoying her delight. She was completely unselfconscious about her amazement, which made it all the more fun for her companions. Knuckles found himself mildly amazed by things he'd taken for granted, while Shadow was able to pull the answers to many of her questions out of the flash-learning he'd received on the ARK, a lot of which were things Knuckles didn't know. Things as simple as why a burner on a stove got hot when a knob was turned, and how a refrigerator made things cold - or perhaps 'basic' was a better term, for some of the answers were not simple at all. She didn't slow down until Knuckles gave a yawn that made his jaws crack. Tikal was a spirit, of course, but the red echidna was a bit miffed that Shadow didn't seem to be the least bit tired either. But he accepted the suggestion that they retire to their respective rooms, while Tikal apologized for keeping them up so late.

In the morning, Lady Marahuté arrived with Kestral and her two black gryphons, and another pair of gryphons that had tawny feline parts and dark brown feathers that glinted with gold highlights. Knuckles boosted Tikal onto one of the tawnies, who seemed to have a friendlier aura than the blacks; certainly the one turned its head with pleasant little chirring sound to inspect its rider. Tikal chirred back at it, started to reach a hand out to the hooked beak - then opted to pat the feathered neck instead. The gryphon tossed its head and faced front again. Knuckles showed her the neck strap, then scrambled up onto the other tawny. Shadow had already seated himself between the wings of one black, and the Lady had arrived on the other. What amazed Knuckles was that the black hedgehog was actually grinning, as he ruffled the feathers in front of him to observe their iridescence. Shadow looked up and caught Knuckles' stare. "Maria would have adored these. Do you think I could get a statue of one?" The question was addressed to the Lady. "I'd be willing to pay for it, of course," he added hastily. Statues of the gryphons were common around the cavern, in a variety of colors and adornments.

"A statue?" The question was clearly not one she'd expected. "I . . . suppose so. But may I ask why?" At an unseen cue the four gryphons sprang into the air, and Kestrel followed on his own wings.

"I'm trying to convince GUN to put up a memorial to the victims who died on the ARK," said Shadow, raising his voice to be heard over the rustle of feathers and wind. "But I want to do something for Maria myself. I was thinking, if I could get a black gryphon statue, that would be something she would have liked, and I could use it as part of the focus piece."

Knuckles had a sudden vision of a crowd of multicolored, fantastically shaped statues, like a front lawn he'd seen near Tails' house once. _Nah, Shadow'd never do anything that vulgar. Would he?_ Knuckles had always heard that people would do strange things for people they loved, but hadn't any real experience in the matter. He was fond of the chao that had raised him, but they weren't really _family_, not like Maria had been to Shadow. A sudden drop made him lose his train of thought and clutch at his mount's neck strap. A considerable mass of stormcloud was filling the western sky, sullenly dark in spite of the bright morning sun shining on it. The air currents were clearly being churned by the approaching storm. He heard Tikal saying something but couldn't make out the words; she appeared to be encouraging her gryphon. Fortunately it was a short flight to the Valley of the Dancing Clouds.

The air chao were out in force, enjoying the gusty winds. Tikal squealed in delight, tumbling off as soon as her mount's claws touched ground and crouching amid the closest cluster of polychrome chao. The chao appeared to recognize her as a Guardian, abandoning their play to crowd around and babble at her. The other three riders dismounted more carefully, and only after their gryphons had fully landed.

They had landed next to the shrine this time. Knuckles wondered how often they had to re-thatch the roof, as he watched wind gusts yank at the straw. There appeared to be something on the altar, but it didn't look right for a King stone. Then Lady Mara led the way in and Knuckles realized that it was the Angel itself, sitting on top of the altar with the cases that contained the Shooting Stars gathered around the base. The pale blue eyes watched them approach, but otherwise the creature gave no indication that it knew they were there. Another burst of wind ushered in a collection of large, splattering raindrops, and suddenly the space under the roof was full of white chao. Tikal ran in with them, and stopped short as she caught sight of the Angel. Knuckles glanced over at Shadow and saw that he was also staring at the Chaos of the air.

The Lady walked toward the altar. When she got within about three feet, the Angel finally moved, sliding off the altar and standing between it and her. She spoke to it in her own language, incomprehensible to the watchers except that it was clearly a plea. The pink-trimmed white form did not move. She added something else, and looked back to Knuckles. "I have told it that you have restored the Fire Opal, and bring a gift from that Guardian," she said, beckoning him forward.

Knuckles nodded, fumbling out the Sol Opal as he advanced. The air chao, which had been volubly discussing whether it was safe to go out again (the rain had been merely a forerunner, and had stopped almost as soon as it started), fell silent and turned to stare as he held out the white gem. He realized suddenly why he had been given the white Opal, as its myriad colors against the white base resembled the cluster of chao, with yellow and green and purple markings bright against their own pale bodies. He felt that strange chill as the Angel advanced, reaching out with one pink-hued hand. It didn't actually touch the Sol Opal, but held its hand above it, three fingers splayed wide. The fire in the opal glittered and danced, not as alive as that of the Fire Opal itself, but moving on its own in a way that no gemstone's ever had. The winglike ears of the Chaos lifted and spread as if they really were wings, and it held that pose for several long minutes. No one moved, including the watching chao.

Suddenly the creature wheeled back towards the altar, slashing its hand through the air in front of it. The cases that held the Shooting Stars crumbled literally to dust and the ancient devices glowed with power and rose to hover before the Guardians. And then Knuckles went blind. Blinking furiously, he managed to clear his vision of enough blue and yellow spots to see that the altar was no longer empty. Shadow's eyes apparently adjusted first, as he heard the hedgehog murmur something. About the same time as he heard Tikal's gasp, his vision cleared completely and Knuckles got his first good look at the Chronos Rock.

It was much clearer now than when the Angel had pulled it forward in time on his first visit. It _was_ a rock, not a crystal, although its polished surface was as glossy as a gem. The Rock was shaped like a faceted sphere, the same shape the Chaos Emeralds had been before the two sets were remerged, but it was grey swirled with veins of other colors. The fossil shapes that Knuckles had thought he'd seen before were there, but . . . He moved closer, as Shadow already had, with Tikal following. The chill kept them from getting too close, but Marahuté, apparently unaffected, walked right up to touch the polished surface. The fossils were moving. Knuckles blinked and looked again. _No, they aren't moving, they're . . . _ He groped for the word that eluded him.

"Evolving," said Shadow softly. "They're evolving as we watch." The dark hedgehog had edged a little closer and crouched so that he was at eye-level with one of the fossils. It was a crustacean, overlapping plates on the body and jointed legs, and as they watched the plates fused in one place and changed shape in others, while the legs also changed in number and shape. Pinchers developed on the front-most legs and suddenly it was a lobster, and then the process continued as it became something else entirely. Knuckles worked his way slowly around, pausing to stare at each of the imprints. Some he didn't recognize at all. He spotted a dragonfly or similar insect, and watched as a horse skeleton apparently devolved, the legs and neck gradually shortening as tiny side bones on its legs turned back into functional toes. One shape developed longer, lighter arm bones with spidery fingers, and the ghostly imprint of a membrane stretched between them, while on another arms and legs both grew shorter and chunkier until the legs were gone completely and the arms dwindled to flippers. Nor were they all animals, there were imprints of leaves and branches as well; and the more closely the echidna looked the more of the fossils he saw, smaller ones fit in-between larger ones, though there was the same oddity of scale that he had encountered with the Fire Opal and the Master Emerald, the whale skeleton was at the same time full size and small enough to cover with his hand, while the imprint of a violet took up more space on the surface of the stone, even though it was far smaller than the whale. The shapes also seemed to rise to the surface and sink back to be replaced by others, which further complicated his brain's attempt to make sense of them. Getting dizzy, he closed his eyes and shook his head, staring at the ground as he opened them again. He looked back, though, as he heard Shadow and Tikal catch their breath, and saw several spots of color rising to the surface as if out of a muddy lake. Unlike the fossils, these actually budded out of the stone, and suddenly there were seven polygonal Time Stones orbiting their King.


	27. Three Kings and Three Tribes

26. Three Kings and Three Tribes

Now at last the air Chaos relaxed its tense pose, the ears sagging back down. The seven Time Stones lifted themselves to the notches in the shrine's supporting beams. The Angel suddenly perked up again, turning back to look over the heads of the dokan as the chao erupted into a chorus of welcoming warbles. Knuckles and the others turned to stare at Chaos - his Chaos, the water god's chao - and the Demon, standing together, while the returned rain dripped off the eaves behind them. The Angel was suddenly there in front of the pair, blue eyes gazing at green and gold ones. Three pairs of arms were raised, and six three-fingered hands intertwined, forming a teepee-shape. Knuckles remembered back in Marble Gardens, where Chaos had propped the three twigs against each other. Power surged around and between the three Chaos, invisible and intangible but as present as the ground beneath their feet. The three Chaos stepped back, lowering their arms so that they stood at the points of a triangle, hands clasped to form the sides. Knuckles realized that his own hand was clasping another; Tikal had edged beside him and was pressed against his side. He wasn't sure who had taken whose hand, but he was grateful for the contact; that much power with no way for him to control it was frightening. Shadow stood on Tikal's other side, his scarlet eyes studying the three Chaos as calmly as if he'd been looking at a sculpture. Further away, Kestrel stood defensively before Mara, hands raised and wings unfurled to shield her. She had a hand on each of the black gryphons, one of whom seemed to consider the Chaos' actions a threat to his mistress, and one of whom seemed to be trying to back away. The tawny gryphons had curled into giant balls of feathers and fur, even their beaks hidden. Knuckles looked back to the trio of Chaos, and now the powers _were_ visible, a ghostly splashing around his Chaos like the tidal waves that had destroyed the Empire, a heat-ripple flaming around the Demon, tornado winds spinning around the pink and white Angel. Above the creatures, in the vortexes of the energy, shapes began to appear. A glint of green, a hint of a curve . . . . Abruptly the powers were sucked into the shapes which solidified into the three King stones. Knuckles automatically felt for the Master Emerald - still there - and glanced over his shoulder at the Chronos Rock, still firmly planted on its altar. His gaze crossed Tikal's as they turned back towards the Chaos. The illusory King stones blazed, as solid-looking as the real ones, then vanished. The Chaos released hands, letting their arms fall limply to their sides as they stood with heads bowed. The chao, who had been clustered in groups all over the shrine, suddenly began to move, filtering among and around the motionless Chaos, burbling and chirping quietly, and separating themselves out into their three base types. They paused a moment, adjusted a few individuals, then began to move again, concentric rings of chao moving in opposite directions centered on the spot in the middle of the three Chaos.

"Incredible," said a barely audible voice to Knuckles' right. He nearly jumped out of his skin - he hadn't been aware that anyone was on that side. Rex nodded slightly as Knuckles looked his way, but kept his own blue gaze on the circling chao. At some unseen signal they stopped again, now well mixed by type and trait, and all held up their own joined hands as they chanted a loud chorus.

And just like that, it was over. The Chaos began to move again, crouching to eye level, or just walking among the chao, stroking lightly on pale blue, or white, or black heads adorned with a variety of colors. The chao babbled at them, and at the dokan, but the Chaos remained as silent as ever. Knuckles abruptly realized he was holding his breath and gasped for air. The sound made Tikal giggle, and she relaxed and stepped away from him. The four gryphons hesitated at the edge of the shrine, peering at the rain, then settled for moving around the perimeter to the farthest point they could get from the Chaos. Mara and Kestrel came to join them, and Knuckles introduced them and Tikal to Rex.

"Where did all the chao come from?" asked Tikal finally. "I only saw white ones at first - maybe a few blues, but the black ones weren't here at the start, were they?"

"There have always been a few, but they normally stay hidden," answered the Lady. "I've never seen so many, nor of the blues, though they are less rare."

"The blacks are mine, mostly," said Rex. "I don't know how the Demon did it, but I was sound asleep and then knew I needed to be at the shrine. I went running out there and found myself stumbling through a veritable mob of the Imps - that's what the miners on Thera call the black chao -" he explained to Marahuté, "and then we were all here. So I stayed quiet and watched. I don't suppose anyone can tell me what I was watching?"

"You're the one who can talk to his Chaos," retorted Knuckles. "They raised a lot of power, but that's all I know. Shadow? Could you tell anything more?"

"I think that 'a lot' is a massive understatement, but that's all I can say. I've never felt so much Chaos energy, even when facing Devil Doom as Super Shadow. And that was all I could really _feel_, was the Chaos energy. I can sense what the Angel and the Demon were drawing, but it's not Chaos energy."

"Time,"said Rex and Lady Mara together. She nodded to the pantherine to continue, and he went on, "I'm not sure what to call what the Devil wields. The old name was 'anima' but I'm not sure that the definition of that was correct even then; and the modern definition is certainly inaccurate. But the Angel, it controls time and therefore the forces that time applies to all matter."

Shadow frowned thoughtfully and pulled out a bracelet that bore a striking resemblance to the Shooting Stars. Knuckles recognized it as one of Tails' more remarkable inventions; it replicated the gravity-shifting abilities of the artifacts while avoiding the complication of creating a black hole when brought near others of its type. The echidna possessed one himself. "But this is a copy of the broken pieces of the Chronos Rock," the dark hedgehog objected, "and it manipulates gravity, not time."

"Gravity requires time in order to happen." The charcoal patterned dokan considered the red-striped one. "I can explain, but it will take a lot of time and a good deal more than casual knowledge of physics. Are you familiar with Piedros and Crimson?"

Shadow quoted something back that made no sense to Knuckles at all, apparently from some work that the people named had done. Rex grinned with delight and the two were quickly immersed in discussing just how the Time Stones an Chronos Rock functioned. The echidna abandoned the esoteric conversation and wandered among the chao, feeling a bit detached. He knew what Chaos energy was even if he didn't know what it _was_. He didn't have to understand how the Master Emerald worked to guard it. Tikal was talking to Mara and Kestrel, and the chao were fully occupied with each other and the three Chaos. He was staring glumly into curtains of blowing rain, and wondering how the Angel kept the wind from blowing into the shrine, when the four gryphons suddenly perked up and started cawing and crowding to peer out as well. A few moments later he was surrounded by chao, who flooded right on out into the downpour. The white ones were jumping up and down and cheering, while the blues and blacks mostly looked bewildered. The echidna jumped back and yelped himself as a huge, indistinct, dark shape appeared through the rain, apparently plummeting towards the shrine. The Angel walked past him and waved a hand and suddenly the rain was gone from the area.

Knuckles knew his mouth was hanging open but he couldn't do anything about it. The massive shape of Babylon Gardens hung in the air above them, half in the new circle of summer sun, without a drop of water in sight, and half in the drenching thunderstorm that hung like a gray curtain around the sunny area. Looking up, he saw a perfect circle cut in the thunderheads, the interior of bright blue sky with a few puffy white clouds - some of which were themselves cut off at the circumference where they joined the current time. What was strangest of all was that the sun itself was nowhere to be seen; by the angle of the light in the circle it should have been mid-morning, but that portion of the sky was a swirl of ominous clouds. He felt Tikal's hand hook around his arm as she joined him.

Without a green flash, a flicker, or even a sense of motion, they were no longer in the valley. The shrine stood around and above them still, but the patch of ground was bounded by carved stone walls, not natural rock, and paving stones led from the shrine to gates. The towers of Babylon gardens rose above them, and the trees and bushes in this garden had either run wild or died long ago. The Angel raised its hands and the garden changed, the dead plants returning to life and the overgrown ones becoming less wild. The white chao poured out into the garden, with a few of the others mixed in.

While the two echidnas were still staring around at the new garden, Rex tapped Knuckles on the shoulder. "We're going now. Your Chaos will take you back, so Shadow is going to come to Thera with me, so we can discuss the relative powers of the Chaos types." The pantherine turned to Tikal. "It's been a pleasure to meet you, and I hope you will come to Thera sometime. I'd be honored to show you around our volcano." He looked back at Knuckles. "Do you still have the Sol Opal?"

The red echidna handed it over, although he was surprised by the abruptness of the white cheetah's departure. "I hope you got everything straight with Blaze."

"I think so. She and Sonic were, ah, discussing whether he was going to show her around this world before she left."

Knuckles could well imagine the 'discussion'. Judging by Shadow's smirk, the black hedgehog had a similar imagination. "Good. I'll certainly stop by sometime. Thanks for the help, Shadow." He wasn't certain about hauling the Master Emerald off the island just for a visit, although Tikal ought to go if she wanted to; perhaps a Chaos Emerald would work for a short trip?

"I'll send you my bill," answered Shadow. He met Knuckles' shocked look with an actual wink. He turned before Knuckles could respond and bowed to the griffs. "Lady Marahuté, I am most honored by your trust. I shall treasure the meeting and this visit in my memories. Kestrel," he nodded to the younger griff and turned to Tikal. "I hope we will meet again, Lady; farewell." He stepped back beside Rex, who had been joined by the Demon and a swarm of black chao. There was a swirl of fire and they were gone.

Knuckles looked over at the Lady. "So, you're moving back onto Babylon Gardens?"

The golden griff looked around at the crumbling towers above the renewed garden. "The Angel and the Chronos Rock are, I think. I believe I'll wait until our people have restored the island. Or maybe leave that to my successor. Some of the Babylonians and griffs will want to move back up here, certainly, for it is our home, and the Chronos Rock will be more easily guarded up here."

"I don't know about that," said Knuckles ruefully. "I've had plenty of people come to Angel Island after the Master Emerald." He didn't add that a number of them had actually managed to take it, and Tikal thankfully didn't point that out either.

The Lady smiled. "Yes, but any who challenge the Angel will find themselves leaving as infants or dust. You are quite capable as a fighter, but that power is one neither you nor I can quite replicate. And those dokan that return to live here will restore the old systems and help to guard the island as well."

"And I suppose you can always go back up into space," said Knuckles. A jab from Tikal warned him that he'd sounded a bit more sour than was perhaps polite.

But the Lady looked more puzzled than offended. "Back into space? We never got there."

"You didn't? But Tails said - or maybe it was one of the Rogues - that the Babylons came from space and crashed . . . ." The end of that particular adventure had gotten rather confused when the Meteortech robot turned into a black hole, but he was fairly certain he'd been told the ancestors of the Babylon Rogues had come from space.

"Ah. No, your informant was confused. The ancient Babylonians did indeed try to ride the Shooting Stars beyond this planet, but the gods struck them down for their arrogance. Have you not heard the human's story of Icarus? The moral there parallels the one in our history. Too great a pride, daring to challenge the gods in their own realm, and the mortal will be struck down. That is after all not so far from what your own race learned, is it not?"

"The power of the gods belongs to the gods alone," said Tikal quietly. "Yes, we learned that at far too great a cost."

Marahuté looked at her sympathetically. "It is truly a pity that such lessons are usually dealt to those who already know better, as well as the fools who need to learn them." She held out a polygonal, polished rock, about the size of Knuckles' clenched fist. "Take this, my dear, and I think you will find you are not so bound to your Master Emerald as you have been."

Tikal took the stone, turning it in her hands. It lacked the fossils that marked its King, but veins in multiple shades of green threaded through the grass-hued rock. "A Time Stone? But, doesn't it need to stay here? I thought that was what all of this was about."

"It needs to stay in this dimension," corrected Lady Mara. "And in fact, you probably could take it temporarily to another dimension, as long as the Chronos Rock and its alternate in that dimension could channel the power between the two. It was the fact that all were missing that was throwing things out of balance."

"Thank you," said Tikal. "I would like to come back again sometime, if I may."

"All Guardians are welcome," answered the Lady. "I would enjoy a visit when there was more time to talk. But for now," her gold eyes flicked to Chaos who was tapping a transparent blue foot on the ground, "I think your transportation is about to go. Goodbye, Guardians of the Clear Waters, and good fortune." She included Chaos in the last sentence, the first time that Knuckles had heard the name of his post, as it were. He wondered if the echidnas had had similar names, or if they were a remnant of Babylon legend only.

Abruptly he seemed to be surrounded by water. Tikal clutched at him frantically, with a gasp that seemed wrung from paralyzed vocal cords. Instinctively Knuckles threw a protective arm around her. Then the 'water' drained away and they were standing in a pool he recognized, near the egg cave on Angel Island. Tikal gasped, jerked away from him, and splashed the three steps to Chaos and slapped it across its nonexistent face. "How dare you!" she demanded, and fled into the trees.

Chaos blinked and dissolved into the pond. Knuckles sloshed out and pulled off his shoes, then went to look for Tikal. He wasn't particularly surprised not to find her, although he couldn't figure out why . . . he stopped as his eye fell on a stone nearly hidden in the undergrowth. Worked stone, a remnant of an Empire-era building that had been washed this far from its original site by Chaos' flooding. _Idiot, _he thought at himself, _no wonder she was terrified. She saw when Chaos washed it all away - not just her father and his warriors, but most of the city and its innocent inhabitants as well. She may have been spared by the creature, but she'd have seen the flood waters sweeping down . . . . _He remembered all too well when Perfect Chaos, enraged and enhanced with the strength of the Chaos Emeralds had flooded Station Square. _Geysers out of the storm drains, pipes bursting and flooding entire skyscrapers, and the tidal wave washing through the streets. _It had been scary enough even though he wasn't at the source that time. _To have actually stood in the square and watched the water pour in . . . poor Tikal._

He gave up looking and headed for the shrine. She could find him if she wanted to talk about it, and he was unlikely to find her if she didn't want to be found. He mounted the steps and returned the Master Emerald to its proper place. Then he sat down on the top steps and scanned the area. No sign of intruders, or Tikal; only a handful of chao returning to play on the boulder strewn slope across the bridge. Knuckles propped his chin in his hands. _I'm still not sure what all that business in the air shrine was with the three Chaos. I wonder if Sonic ever had an adventure he needed someone to explain afterwards. _He snorted to himself. _Hmpf, Sonic wouldn't care. He enjoys the adventure while he's in it and then I bet he never thinks about it again. But still, I'd like someone to explain this one to me someday. _He shook his head and watched the chao playing on the boulders, keeping his endless watch and wondering when Tikal would reappear.


	28. Epilogue

Epilogue

Several abysmally hot days later, Knuckles was standing on a newly-arrived seashore at the edge of the shrine islet. Angel Island had submerged itself all the way to 'ground level', and the bridge mooring the islet to the Island proper was a scant two feet above the splashing waves. Shading his eyes with one hand, he scanned for fish-shadows beneath the water.

_There. _He focused on the first, and suddenly there were a number of them, three, five, a dozen. Big fish, seeking the shade cast by the islet and bridge; more would be gathering around the far side of the island. _Good. They're gathering_. Fishing would be a welcome distraction. He hadn't seen either Tikal or Chaos since they'd gotten home, and with the brutal heat, even the chao were laying low. But as usually happened after several days of swelter, Angel Island had dropped to sea level, as if the island itself wanted to cool off. The familiar bridge looked peculiar, with water rippling under it like any 'normal' bridge. The echidna didn't dwell on the appearance, though, he sat down and pulled off his shoes and socks. His spear already lay nearby, in anticipation of fishing. There was a coil of rope as well, for tying the spear to the bridge when the really big fish started making an appearance. Physical strength was all well and good, but while Knuckles was heavier for his size than any human, he still was no match for a 400-pound tuna without assistance. He planned to catch a couple of the really big ones to freeze for later, but first he wanted to cool off a bit. Picking up the spear, he dove into the water.

It was not a particularly efficient method of fishing, and he honestly hadn't expected to catch anything; it was just an excuse to get out of the sun for a few minutes. On the other hand, when a smallish fish - fatally careless, blind, or perhaps suicidal - ran itself onto his spear, he was willing enough to haul up on the shore with it. ('Smallish' being a relative term; he estimated the fish weighed about half what he did - which was very small compared with some of the others gathered under the bridge.) He braced on foot against the still-flopping fish to dislodge his spear, then turned his back long enough to tie off one end of the rope to the spear's butt-ring and the other end to the bridge. Stepping on the weatherbeaten planks reminded him that he'd better put his shoes back on if he didn't want splinters in his soles - only the shoes were gone. He hunted around the area for several minutes, not that there was any place they could be, really, only the long grass and a few paving stones, before he realized something else was missing. He jumped back to where he'd left the fish_. I know it couldn't have gotten back to the water from here! I'd have heard the splash, anyway. Wouldn't I? _He looked around, finally turning a questioning glance towards the shrine. But that was uphill and farther away than the water was. _Wait, what's that?_

Something flickered at the edge of one of the broken stone pillars - no, behind the pillar. As the Guardian started to run towards it - _Don't tell me a CHAO walked off with that fish! _- there was an outbreak of giggles.

"Tikal!" He rounded the pillar sharply, and so quickly that he nearly collided with her. His shoes and socks were on the low stone border, behind the pillar from his original position. "But what did you do with the fish?"

His perplexed expression turned her smothered giggling to gales of laughter. The peach echidna waved a hand up at the shrine. Following the gesture, Knuckles spotted the head of Chaos looking over the edge of the upper level. Seeing the Guardian's scowl, the watery being quickly held up a hand, holding the missing piscine by the tail.

Knuckles snorted. "I take it you've made up then."

Tikal nodded. "I'm sorry I ran off like that, but . . . some of those memories I just can't face. But we've been friends too long for me to be mad at Chaos for long, and it truly doesn't understand how we think. And I didn't steal your fish!" she added emphatically. "_I_ only hid the shoes and socks. _It,_" she jerked a thumb at the lurking monster, "came up with that trick itself."

Knuckles grinned. No trespassers, only a joke. "I see," he said in a skeptical tone. "And will you help me get the fish back from it?"

Tikal met his faux skepticism with her own pretense, striking an ostentatiously thoughtful pose. "I suppose I could," she allowed, finally. Then the grin was back. "But only if you invite me to dinner."

"Uh, sure," answered Knuckles in some confusion. "But why do you want to watch me eat?"

"Invite me to HAVE dinner, not to watch it!" she exclaimed. "Why would I want to watch you eat?"

"I asked first!" he shot back. "But, I thought you couldn't eat, uh, anymore."

"I haven't been able to eat, or breathe, or even really feel anything I touched, for three thousand years," she said softly. "Until a few days ago." She pulled a green stone out of her pocket. The Time Stone had shrunk itself to about golf-ball-sized, but was easily recognizable. "When I have this near me, I have an actual body again, not just the energy-formed simulation the Chaos and Master Emeralds give me. I have my actual body again. Which took a bit of getting used to, at first," she added.

"And if you go away from it?"

"Then I go back to being a tangible ghost, or a spirit light again. Which has some advantages, but for now, I think I'd rather be me again. So, are you going to invite me to dinner?"

"Gladly," said Knuckles. Pausing a moment, he tried to summon up the courtly manners that were so little a part of echidna attitudes. He bowed in the Ancient Echidnan fashion and asked, "Lady who Guards the Clear Waters, won't you join me for dinner?"

With a return curtsey, Tikal accepted.


End file.
